S.A. Chowdhury, MD and Dr. Muhammad Asaduzzaman, DMD of Bangladesh Commerce Bank Ltd, seen at a conference in the city on Saturday.

The Dhaka Divisional Officers’ Conference-2012 of Bangladesh Commerce Bank Ltd was held at the BIAM auditorium on Saturday.

Officers from head office and 17 branch offices of Dhaka Division were present at the conference, said a press release.

S.A. Chowdhury, managing director and Dr. Muhammad Asaduzzaman, deputy managing director of the Bank were present as chief guest and special guest respectively.

High officials and executives, among others, were present on the occasion.

The Daily Sun/Bangladesh/ 13th Feb 2012

A stiff competition in the banking industry to lure depositors by raising interest rates, which  started since the beginning of New Year,  has escalated further, showing a sign of severe liquidity shortage.Banks raised their rates on savings, fixed or term deposits up to more than 15 per cent after central bank scrapped the cap on lending rates.

The banks having less current account or savings accounts became aggressive to give a boost to the cash flow, cashing in on the central bank’s latest move, according to the banking circle.Stock investors also divert their funds from the capital market to banks to take advantage of higher deposit interest rate to earn more from stock investment that declined around 20 per cent since the beginning of 2012.

“In the wake of current volatile global economic situation, we believe that the deposit rates will be a highly beneficial and attractive source of returns for our customers,” said a top banker.On January 4, Bangladesh Bank (BB) had lifted the cap on lending rate for all sectors and items barring only two -- agriculture and export-- to facilitate the country's overall economic growth through supporting investment activities in different fields. 

The savings deposit rates have been raised up to 14 per cent in January, well ahead of 10 per cent in the same month a year ago. Among the 30 private commercial banks (PCBs), Pubali is probably the first bank to  raised deposit interest rate soon after the withdrawal of the lending cap.

Later, other PCBs and foreign banks joined the race.Uttara Bank has raised the interest rate to 13.50 per cent from 12 per cent, Islami Bank to 10.50 per cent from 8 per cent, National Bank Ltd  14.50 per cent from 12.50 per cent, IFIC Bank  14 per cent from 12 per cent, NCC Bank 13 per cent from 12.13 per cent, Standard Bank 14.50 per cent from 12 per cent,  City Bank 13.50 per cent from 12.0 per cent and Bank Asia 13.00 per cent from 12.0 per cent, show BB data.

 Among the nine foreign banks operating in Bangladesh, State Bank of India and HSBC raised 12 per cent each, and Al-Falah made it 13 per cent from 11 per cent. “This is a unhealthy competition, as banks need cash now,” said ex-Bangladesh Bank governor Salehuddin Ahmed.

Savings have become almost difficult for the low and limited income people because of rising inflation, he pointed out.The banks need to act rationally while fixing deposit and lending rates in order to ensure stability in the country's money market, he said.Meanwhile, the Association of Bankers, Bangladesh (ABB) has asked its member banks to re-fix the interest rate on deposits at a maximum of 12.50 per cent and fix the same on lending at a maximum of 15.50 per cent. 

The decisions were taken at a recent emergency meeting of the key bankers' body.The move came after businesses expressed their fear over an adverse impact of the lending rate hike to a substantial level following the withdrawal of its capping.

The Independent/Bangladesh/ 12th Feb 2012

BASIC Bank Limited has organised a workshop titled “Green Banking and Environmental Risk Management” at the Bank’s head office in the city on Saturday.

Md Shahabad Doza, Deputy Managing Director of the Bank was present the workshop as chief guest, said a press release.

Khondkar Morshed Millat, Joint Director of Bangladesh Bank presented the key-note paper at the function.
Among others, Kurban Ali, Deputy General Manager of BASIC Bank and loan officials of 47 branches of the Bank were participated at the workshop.

The Daily Sun/Bangladesh/ 12th Feb 2012

Bangladesh Bank Gove rnor Dr. Atiur Rahman has urged the banks and financial institutions as well as the affluent segment of the society to come forward to help the poor and meritorious students.

He said the key to sustainable development of a country like Bangladesh lies with only developing the human resources and the very first step of which is education.

Keeping this in view to face the challenges of the 21st century the present government has given utmost priority in building knowledge-based and digital Bangladesh as well as developing human resources in the overall development programme, Governor added.

The Governor said this while addressing a function on distribution of education scholarship organised by the Southeast Bank Foundation at the Institute of Diploma Engineers (IDEB) on Saturday.

Dr. Atiur also stressed on nurturing the talent of youths mentioning that they will be the driving force of booting economic growth in the future.

Praising the Southeast Bank Foundation’s initiatives Governor said such step will play significant role in ensuring entrance in all stages of education and also in building a knowledge-base and organised society.

Southeast Bank Foundation has taken an initiative to implement a long term education scholarship programme since 2009 under which it has provided stipends to 582 students in 2010-11 and so far it has provided stipends to a total of 1263 students till 2011.

Governor has advised the students to study well aiming to turn into skilled human resources as well as asset for the country.

The Daily Sun/Bangladesh/ 12th Feb 2012

The newly-appointed 64 assistant directors of Bangladesh Bank start countrywide field-level inspection today (Sunday) with a view to bringing transparency, accountability and pace in banks’ agriculture and SME credit disbursement programme as well as achieve loan disbursement target.

The assistant directors in 28 groups will inspect farm and SME credit disbursement programme in 56 upazilas of 28 districts across the country.

The BB officials, who are now receiving training, will collect data and find out problems and explore possibilities during the field-level visit that will continue till February 23, said the BB spokesperson on Saturday.

The BB teams will talk to the farmers, and small and medium entrepreneurs, listen to their problems, explore possibilities and visit rural bank branches during the tour, he said.

The districts include Jamalpur, Narsingdi, Rangpur, Mymensingh, Sherpur and Moulvibazar apart from the districts that have rural economic bases.

The central bank thinks such initiative would help ensure successful implementation of agriculture and SME loan programme and create awareness among the small and medium entrepreneurs.

The Daily Sun/Bangladesh/ 12th Feb 2012