Prime Bank Limited entered into an agreement with BRAC recently to provide agricultural loan of Tk 2000 million for onward lending to farmers for crop cultivation, poultry farming and fish farming.
Ahmed Kamal Khan Chowdhury, Managing Director and CEO of Prime Bank Limited and S.N Kairy, Chief Financial Officer of BRAC and BRAC International signed the agreement on behalf of their organisations, said a press release.
During the occasion Md. Golam Rabbani, DMD and Chief Operating Officer, Md. Touhidul Alam Khan, Deputy Managing Director and Chief Business Officer, Md. Omar Kabir, Executive Vice President and Head of Gulshan Branch of Prime Bank Limited and Md. Abdus Sattar Sarker FCMA, ACA, Head of Finance of BRAC were also present.
Prime Bank Limited has been extending its support to boost the country’s agricultural sector.

Modhumoti Bank Limited signed an IME-Sub Agency agreement with NCC Bank Limited at the bank’s head office in Dhaka on Wednesday.
As per the agreement, Modhumoti Bank will serve international inward money transfer to their client in a fast, reliable and convenient way, said a press release.
Md Mizanur Rahman, Managing Director and CEO of Modhumoti Bank Limited, and Golam Hafiz Ahmed, Managing Director and CEO of NCC Bank Limited, signed the agreement on behalf of their respective organisations.
AKM Nazmul Hossain, Country Manager of IME, Md Shafiul Azam, Additional Managing Director of Modhumoti Bank Limited, Khandoker Rahimuzzaman, Head of Operations, and Akhtar Hamid Khan, Deputy Managing Director of NCC Bank Limited, ABM Jashim Uddin Ahamed, Head of NRB and SVP, Md Moniruzzaman, PRO and VP, and senior officials of both the banks were present.

Signs $112mn credit for 100MW power plant

Francois de Maricourt, Chief Executive Officer, HSBC Bangladesh, and Md Shahinul Islam Khan, Chairman, BPDB, exchange documents after signing an agreement at a ceremony in Dhaka recently.

Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) has recently signed agreements for $112 million ECA (Export Credit Agency) backed credit facilities to support construction of a 100MW HFO-based power plant in Chapainawabganj in the country.
Francois de Maricourt, Chief Executive Officer, HSBC Bangladesh, Md Shahinul Islam Khan, Chairman, BPDB, Board Members of BPDB and senior officials from both the organisations were present at the signing ceremony.
The Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited (HSBC) is acting as the mandated lead arranger of this credit facility. BPDB is responsible for major portion of generation and distribution of electricity mainly in urban areas except Dhaka and west zone of the country.
The Board is under the Power Division of the Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources, Government of Bangladesh.
HSBC has previously arranged financing for BPDB and its subsidiaries to implement two other important power projects in Bangladesh.

Khandaker Anwar Ehtesham has recently been selected as advisory council member of CMO-Asia's World Brand Congress.

Ehtesam, currently the head of communications and branding division at Dhaka Bank, was awarded as one of the 100 most talented “Global Marketing Leaders” by World Marketing Congress in 2014, Dhaka Bank said in a statement yesterday.

He brings almost a decade of professional experiences in advertising, brand management, public relations and qualitative research, according to the statement.

Ehtesam joined the “Festival of Media – Asia Pacific 2015” marketing event as the first Bangladeshi judge to evaluate 46 renowned global companies. Festival of Media is a strategic concern of C Squared Brand and M&M Global, according to the statement.

The World Bank is set to extend long-term low-cost loans to private sector firms, including those from garments, footwear and light engineering sectors, in a bid to brighten the country's stagnant investment scenario.

A $300 million fund is likely to be provided to Bangladesh, the approval for which is due from the multilateral lender's board in the first week of June.

The rate of interest on the loan would be LIBOR plus 3-4 percent and the credit would be given for five years.

The WB said the country is in want of long-term financing that is critical for investment and growth -- and the gap needs to be filled.

At present, there is a “significant demand” for long-term financing by eligible and bankable firms, the supply for which has not been matched by the market.

Market analysis and discussions with stakeholders indicated that one of the major impediments to expansion of long-term financing is the absence of supply of such financing.

For instance, last year, only 30-35 of the 6,000 such firms managed dollar-based long-term financing, the lender said.

While those firms were large in size, the multilateral lender is looking to reach out to mid-sized firms through the programme. Part of the problem at present is the absence of long-term deposit instruments in the financial institutions, which the project seeks to address through technical assistance to develop long-term deposit instruments and the pension market.

Information asymmetries and the banks' lack of capacity and risk aversion, which further exacerbates the limited supply of long-term finance, will also be tackled through the sector wide technical assistance.

The programme will require a total of $350 million and the government will contribute with $50 million.

Of the amount, $291 million will be used for supporting long-term financing for the private sector, $1.25 million for technical assistance such that the firms go on to develop as competitive institutions, $50 million for strengthening the financing market infrastructure, and $5 million for strengthening the capacity of the regulator. The proposed project is particularly looking to increase the long-term bank financing for the manufacturing sector, especially those involved in exports, and small and medium enterprises.

The programme is expected to have a positive impact on the overall growth of firms, economic growth, employment and poverty reduction. The long-term finance line will be channelled by the Bangladesh Bank.

The credit line will provide banks with access to longer-term resources for on-lending to firms. It will help firms access the term lending (expected average of five years) that is required for capital formation and technological upgrade, facilitating the growth, productivity and competitiveness of firms.