Bamgladesh Bank (BB) will increase its own CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) fund to Taka 10 crore in the coming fiscal from the current amount of Taka 5.13 crore, reports BSS.
Bangladesh Bank (BB) Governor Atiur Rahman made the announcement yesterday at a programme at the BB’s headquerters in the capital city, AFM Asaduzzaman, General Manager, Governor Secretariat of BB, told the news agency. He said BB would have a CSR fund of Taka 10 crore in the coming 2015-16 fiscal for supporting more projects to encourage more institutions being socially responsible besides doing their own business.
The central bank has already expanded its CSR activities, with pledging financial support to 30 projects in the current fiscal, which are more than double the projects the central bank funded last year.
The central bank yesterday finalised the memorandum of understanding (MoU) with 26 organisations and handed over the cheques of Taka over three crore for the first installement of the fund to implement the projects. Similar deals would be done soon with four more organisations for the rest four projects.
The 30 projects covering the areas including financial inclusion, socio-economic development, environment protection, education and health, rehabilitation of differently able persons, public welfare, consumers’ rights protection, hume resource development and wellbeing of the Birangonas (heroines of the War of Independence in 1971).
“Besides the banks and financial institutions, Bangladesh Bank as regilator has got involved in the CSR activities towards attaining sustainable development in the field of economy,” Governor Atiur Rahman told the programme, orgaised at the central bank’s headquerts in the city for signing the MoUs and handing over the cheques.
The governor expected that the direct involvement of BB, though with limitation, would encourage others. He called all the institutions in the financial sector to carry out CSR activities to help develop the countries financial sector to help ensure betterment of society.
Last year, the central bank funded 14 projects by providing Taka five crore from its CSR fund, which was introduced in 2013. This year the central bank increased its funding to Taka 5.13 crore.

The World Bank has pledged strong support for Bangladesh to achieve the goal of becoming a middle-income country by the end of this decade.

“For this to happen, Bangladesh needs to do more to narrow the power and transportation gaps, manage urbanisation, reduce climate change impacts, and also improve the business environment and governance,” said Annette Dixon, WB's vice-president for South Asia region.

She said they will help Bangladesh clear bottlenecks that impede faster growth and connect to regional and global markets.

She made the comments after completing her first visit to Bangladesh since her appointment as the vice-president in December last year, according to a statement.

“Bangladesh is recognised globally for making remarkable progress in reducing poverty and advancing human development. Other countries can learn from Bangladesh's rich development experience,” she said.

She said the World Bank remains committed to working with Bangladesh to reduce poverty and bring prosperity to all Bangladeshis. The WB has already approved more than $1 billion in new financing this fiscal year to improve primary education, child nutrition, and resilience to natural disasters.

“We are on track to deliver a total of nearly $2 billion by the end of June,”

During her visit, Dixon met with senior government officials, including the finance minister and Bangladesh Bank governor, and discussed how WB support can be best aligned with the country's priorities.

She also met civil society and private sector leaders and development partners. Dixon visited Chittagong Export Processing Zone and a government health facility in Dhaka.

The WB is the largest development partner of Bangladesh, committing more than $19 billion in interest-free IDA credit to advance Bangladesh's development priorities since the country's independence.

The current IDA portfolio consists of 32 projects, with a total commitment of $7.5 billion. The World Bank Group's private sector arm, International Finance Corporation (IFC), has a portfolio of 35 projects with investment commitments of $668 million.

Third from right, Md Ahsan-uz Zaman, managing director of Midland Bank, attends the launch of the bank's five new deposit products and Visa branded credit card, at the bank's head office in Dhaka yesterday. Photo: Midland Bank

Midland Bank yesterday came up with five new deposit products along with Visa branded credit card.

The credit card (platinum and gold) and the deposit products—MDB Super Saver, MDB College Saver, MDB School Saver, MDB Probashi Savings and MDB Gift Cheque—were launched at a programme at the bank's head office in Dhaka.

At the programme, the bank's managing director, Md Ahsan-uz Zaman, presented the features of the new and existing deposit products, according to a statement.

The bank will continue bringing more customised, friendly and attractive products to offer better services to customers, Zaman said. Khondoker Nayeemul Kabir, deputy managing director, was also present.

The banking sector's net profit dropped around 17 percent year-on-year in 2014 to Tk 5,993 crore on the back of mounting bad loans which necessitated large provisioning.

The banks last year made operational profit of Tk 21,265 crore, from which Tk 9,037 crore was deducted as tax and Tk 6,238 crore as provisioning against bad loans, according to central bank statistics.

Of the 56 banks, UK-based Standard Chartered Bank recorded the highest profits last year: their operating profit was Tk 1,742 crore and net profit Tk 1,098 crore.

Another foreign bank, HSBC, came in the second position with their net profit of Tk 579 crore and operating profit of Tk 969 crore.

The private and foreign banks saw their net profits rise last year, by 21 percent and 17 percent respectively.

The 48 private banks altogether clocked in operating profits of Tk 14,941 crore, of which Tk 6,350 crore was taken off as tax and Tk 2,881 crore for provisioning.

After the deductions, the banks logged in net profit of Tk 5,711 crore.

The foreign banks' operating profit in 2014 was Tk 3,134 crore; Tk 1,331 crore was taken off as tax and Tk 99 crore as provisioning. After the subtractions, their net profit stood at Tk 1,704 crore.

Of the state banks, four -- Janata, Sonali, Rupali and Agrani -- made net profit of Tk 1,304 crore in 2014, which is an increase of 4.57 percent over the previous year.

But the group was pulled down by BASIC Bank, which made a net loss of Tk 2,686 crore last year and operating loss of Tk 111 crore. A high official of the bank said there was a greater need for provisioning, due to which their losses became bigger.

The five state banks, as a result, collectively ended up in the red for the year: the statistics showed they altogether made a net loss of Tk 1,381 crore.

Three other government-owned specialised banks last year made total operating profit of Tk 8 crore. However, their net loss was around Tk 42 crore mainly due to a large amount of loss by Krishi Bank. Krishi Bank's net loss was Tk 185 crore in 2014.

Meanwhile, Helal Ahmed Chowdhury, former managing director of Pubali Bank, told The Daily Star that bad loans of many banks came down thanks to monitoring by the central bank.

“The good news is that the banking sector's bad loans decreased last year to single digits.

Bangladesh is remaining one of the major recipients of financial assistance from the World Bank (WB), with obtaining a total lending commitment of $2.7 billion dollars by the end of 2015, reports BSS.
“The Bank already offered $1.2 billion for four projects and we hope the amount of the total lending commitment would stand at $2.7 billion at the end of this year,” Finance Minister AMA Muhith told journalists after a meeting with a top level official of the development partner. World Bank Vice-President for the South Asia Region Annette Dixon met with the finance minister at his office yesterday when they had discussions on the status of the current areas of assistance and future programmes and projects. One of the major issues was to speed up the process of releasing the expected $500 million budgetary support from the WB.
The WB high official assured that all expected support including the budget assistance would be continued. 
Dixon said at the meeting they had talked about the history of cooperation between Bangladesh and World Bank when she noted some significant progress that this country made in the recent years.
“My discussion focused on how the WB could support Bangladesh more to take the country to the middle income group in next few years”, she said.
She observed that Bangladesh economy in the past few years expanded well with 6 per cent year-on-year growth, which resulted in substantial reduction in poverty. 
“Poverty has reduced in the last ten years and we believe it is an outstanding success in development”, she said. 
The finance minister said that the bank would come forward with the budget programme, but there would have farther discussions on the issue.
He said the bank would partner with the government to help shape and implement the policies aimed at reducing poverty, improving shared prosperity and promoting sustainable growth.
”The poverty rate will be reduced at 11 to 14 per cent in 2018, and if it comes at this level, this will be like no poverty,” he added.
When asked about the negative impact of the present political unrest on poverty reducing initiatives, the finance minister said this situation would not sustain for long.
Terming the countrywide blockade and hartal by the BNP-Jamaat alliance as worthless, the finance minister said any political party in the country did not give such worthless programme before.