Basic Bank Limited (Bangladesh Small Industries and Commerce Bank Limited) came into operation on 21 January, 1989. Basic Bank was established with a vision to extend financial support for the hundreds of thousands of small and cottage industries of the country. At the inception it was a joint venture of BCC foundation and the Government of Bangladesh, holding shares of 70% and 30% respectively. As the BCC foundation became nonfunctional, 100% shares of the bank were taken up by GOB on 4 June, 1992. So the bank is now owned by the state. However, to keep it up in efficiency and to get the best from it, the bank is still operated with full autonomy as before.

Basic Bank decided to invest 50% of available credit fund for the small scale industries and accordingly it set all strategies and work plan.

Capital Position

The capital position of Basic Bank is depicted as below:

• Authorized capital - Tk. 2000.00 million
• Paid up capital - Tk. 1964.65 million
• Total reserve and surplus on 31Dec.2010 - Tk. 2509.78 million

Services

Basic Bank, including all commercial banking functions provides the following services to its clients.

• Term loan to industries, mainly to small scale industries (SSIs)
• Technical support to SSIs for operating their businesses profitably
• Micro credit for the urban poor
• All commercial banking services like deposit accounts, credit for trade (local & foreign), and working capital financing.

For presenting these services to the deserving customers, the bank maintain close liaison with all concerned from Government authority, NGOs and the central bank.

Activities

Basic Bank achieved continuous growth in industrial credit from the year 2000. It was Tk.2735.50 million in 2000, while it came up to Tk. 27777.89 million on 31 December, 2010. As the bank has the primary responsibility to enhance SSIs, 54. 65% of its total credit was distributed to them in the year 2010. Among other sectors textile and garments got a major share of finance. Basic bank provided assistance to agro based and other small and medium scale industries as well. These are mainly poultry, light engineering, food and allied, jute and leather etc.

Basic Bank extended its cooperation to trade and commerce of the country also. It provides almost all banking services required by export and import businesses. Cash credit, packing credit, short term loan, purchase of local and foreign bills, are some of those services. At the end of year 2010 outstanding commercial credit of BBL was Tk. 16915.32 million against Tk. 10877.17 million in the previous year.

Micro credit schemes of Basic Bank were first launched in 1994. Now the bank disburses micro credit in three channels. These are described in the following:

• Credit to potential NGOs that distribute loan among their members. At present 41 NGOs are working with the bank
• Direct credit to the target groups under own management
• Money direct to the members of NGOs under supervision of the concerned NGO , who gets a supervision fee

The ultimate target of micro credit is to create self employment and to attain sustainable growth for the low income group. It can be said that Basic Bank is proceeding in right track to the goal as the bank has an outstanding credit of Tk. 988.72 million at the end of year 2010. Moreover recovery rate is quite satisfactory at 97.32%.

Basic Bank extended service to a total import business of Tk. 42205.80 million and export business of Tk. 23998.47 million in the last year. These were against Tk. 33976.60 and Tk. 19887.70 million respectively in the previous year. So the schemes achieved remarkable growth.

New products

Basic Bank has introduced some new deposit products for its customers. These are designed mainly for limited income people. These schemes are namely, Basic Double Benefit Scheme, Basic Monthly Benefit Scheme and Basic Premium Plus Current Account. These programs offer attractive benefit for the clients and are getting good response.

Basic Bank Limited started its journey with a distinct goal. In the mean time it has proved its skill and efficiency in approaching the target on strong footing.