Bangladesh Bank has sought detailed information from its authorised dealer banks on remittance they receive from aboard as Wage Remittance, reports UNB.
In a circular issued yesterday, the central bank asked the banks to send their remittance reports specifying districts of the remittance senders and also mentioning ‘Not Specified’ for those whose districts are not specified. The directives were made as per the decisions taken at a meeting held on August 5 last which was attended by representatives of the Bangladesh Bank’s Statistics Department and Foreign Exchange Policy Department, Islami Bank Bangladesh Ltd and Janata Bank Ltd.
The circular said the dealer banks have to mention in their reports the names of the countries from where remittance is sent.
Names of districts of the remittance senders which could not be specified in the report of a week must be collected and sent those to the Bangladesh Bank in the report to be submitted on next Sunday.
There must be uniformity between the reports of the remittance which are sent to the Foreign Exchange Policy Department weekly and that sent to the Statistics Department daily.
The central bank also advised the dealer banks to send the daily district-based remittance report through ‘RIT Input Temple’ to its Statistics Department.

KUWAIT CITY: The National Bank of Kuwait’s investment arm has been selected as exclusive financing adviser for a $12-billion clean fuel refineries project, the bank said in a statement yesterday.
State-owned Kuwait National Petroleum Co. (KNPC), which owns the mega project, and NBK Capital signed a 12-month contract under which the bank will assess funding requirements and help raise the financing, reports AFP. KNPC awarded the clean fuel project to upgrade two of three refineries to three international consortia in April and also invited bids to build a new 615,000-barrel refinery at an estimated cost of $15 billion. 
The clean fuel project, to modernise Al-Ahmadi and Mina Abdullah refineries to produce environment-friendly petroleum products, is scheduled to be completed in 2018.

Trust Bank and the ICT Division also signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the issue

Rejaul Karim Byron

In an extraordinary move, BASIC Bank's top managers have forfeited a certain portion of their monthly gross salaries in a bid to minimise the operating costs in the face of financial tribulations.

The bank's six deputy managing directors have given up Tk 30,000 each from their gross monthly salaries and the 12 general managers Tk 20,000 each -- a first in the country.

“The management voluntarily took the initiative. There was no pressure from the board, but they appreciated the decision,” Mojib Uddin Ahmed, a director of the bank, told The Daily Star yesterday.

The move is part of the action plan that BASIC sent last week to the finance ministry to rescue the ailing bank by 2016.

Presently, the state-run bank's DMDs draw Tk 4 lakh as monthly gross salary and the GMs Tk 2 lakh. The forfeited amount will be kept in one of the deposit pension schemes of the bank and if BASIC sees net profits by 2016, the sum would be paid back to the 18 officials.

A high official of BASIC said a similar pay cut will be offered to the bank's top officials in phases.

In return for the action plan, the bank sought Tk 1,372 crore on an emergency basis from the government fund to meet its capital shortfall.  As of June, the bank had a capital shortfall of Tk 1,675 crore.

The specialised bank in the action plan said due to its capital shortfall and the overwhelming negative image, many international banks are not accepting its letters of credits (LCs).

Ahmed said the matter has been taken care of. “It happened for a short period. The problem is over now -- there is nothing to worry about.”

He said the bank management sat down with those who hesitated in doing business and reassured them that they are now dealing with a new, improved and upright BASIC Bank.

Meanwhile, in the action plan sent to the bank and financial institutions division, BASIC said by 2016 it will: realise default loans amounting to Tk 1,000 crore, bring down the default loan volume to less than 35 percent and aim to make net profits of Tk 150 crore.

In December last year, the bank's net loss stood at Tk 53 crore,

It also set a target of increasing private deposit, which now stands at only 11 percent of the bank's deposits, to 25 percent in the next two years. 

Some 250 proposals approved by the previous board have been suspended and the management asked to bring fresh proposals on a case-by-case basis.

The action plan also mentioned that efforts are being made to bring back the bank's 50 good borrowers who left due to the rampant corruption culture during the previous board's regime.

In July, the government recast the bank's board to be helmed by former Krishi Bank Chairman Alauddin A Majid.

The steps taken against the irregularities that occurred at the bank were also mentioned. The Anti-Corruption Commission is conducting an investigation and BASIC will take actions against the persons found responsible in the probe.

Furthermore, an audit firm will go through approved loans of Tk 1 crore and above to detect irregularities, if any.

The process of appointing the accountancy firm is underway, and actions will be taken against those against whom allegations are found correct in the audit report.

 Al-Arafah Islami Bank Limited has launched Business Process Automation (BPA) to provide faster and smarter client-service.

Badiur Rahman, Chairman of the bank inaugurated the BPA project at the bank’s head office on Sunday, said a press release.

Md. Harun-Ar-Rashid Khan, Nazmul Ahsan Khaled, Abdul Malek Mollah, Hafez Md. Enayet Ullah, Ahamedul Haque, A N M Yeahea, Engr. Kh. Mesbah Uddin Ahmed, Abdus Salam, Niaz Ahmed, Md. Ashik Hossain, Mohammad Emadur Rahman, Doctor Shafiul Haidar Chowdhury, Anowar Hossain, Md. Liakat Ali Chowdhury and Khalid Rahim, Directors of the bank were present on the occasion.

Md. Habibur Rahman, Managing Director of the bank presided over the ceremony.

Badiur Rahman in his speech described BPA as the automation of complex business processes and functions beyond conventional data manipulation and record keeping activities, usually through the use of advanced technologies.

He said, by adopting BPA, the bank will be able to eliminate repetitive paper intensive bureaucratic tasks which will reduce costs and provide better risk management. He also mentioned, the ultimate motive for implementing BPA is to provide improved customer service and to acquire better organisational strength.