Dhaka- A branch manager’s conference has been held with the participation of 43 branch managers of Dhaka city and adjoining areas of National Bank Limited along with the concerned divisional heads at the training institute of the bank recently, informed in a press release. A K M Shafiqur Rahman, Managing Director & CEO was the chief guest and Md. Badiul Alam, Additional Managing Director, Abdul Hamid Mia and Syed Mohammad Bariqullah, Deputy Managing Directors and Forhad Ahmed Chowdhury, Sr. Executive Vice President were also present.
The managing director and other senior executives of head office thanked the managers for their business performance during the first half of 2014. Threadbare discussions were held in the conference for maximization of profit and for recovery of stuck-up loans. The managing director instructed the branch managers to gear up their efforts towards expansion of overall business activities of the branches.

Arab Bank Plc ARBK.AM goes on trial next week in New York over claims that it provided material support to the Palestinian group Hamas, in what one of the plaintiffs' lawyers said is the first terrorism financing case against a bank to go to trial in the United States.

Almost 300 US citizens who were the victims, or the family members of victims, of militant attacks allegedly committed by Hamas in Israel and the Palestinian territories between 2001 and 2004 sued the Amman, Jordan-based bank in 2004.

About 200 other plaintiffs in the lawsuit with claims against the bank stemming from attacks blamed on the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades and other groups have not yet gone to trial.

The plaintiffs accused the bank of violating the US Anti-Terrorism Act, which allows victims of US-designated foreign terrorist organizations to seek compensation. The US State Department designated Hamas a terrorist organization in 1997.

Arab Bank has said it did not cause or provide material support for the attacks.

US District Judge Brian Cogan, who is presiding over the case in Brooklyn federal court, has said the trial could last up to 60 days. Jury selection begins on Monday.

The bank could be liable for millions of dollars, said Gary Osen, a lawyer for the plaintiffs. He said this was the first terrorism financing case against a bank to go to trial in the United States.

The trial could be a guidepost for the other plaintiffs in the case, Osen said. Meanwhile, civil terror financing cases are pending against Bank of China Ltd (601988.SS) and Credit Lyonnais SA (CRLPp.PA) in Manhattan and Brooklyn federal court.

The plaintiffs' evidence will include bank records and newspaper advertisements showing that Arab Bank maintained accounts for Hamas operatives and processed payments for the families of suicide bombers, Osen said.

Arab Bank has said it will argue that of millions of transactions it processed during the period, only four processed in New York involved parties the United States had designated as terrorists, which it reported to US regulators who took no action.

In a statement issued on Tuesday, the bank said it "provided routine banking services in compliance with applicable counter terrorism laws and regulations, and had no intention of providing support to Hamas or any other known terrorist organization."

In 2012, US District Judge Jack Weinstein, in the same Brooklyn federal court, dismissed a similar case against the bank, saying plaintiff Mati Gill could not prove it was responsible for injuries sustained in 2008 from gunshots fired from Gaza into Israel.

Daniel Alonso, a managing director with compliance consulting firm Exiger and former prosecutor, said courts apply strict standards to claims for recovery under the Anti-Terrorism Act.

"It's not enough simply to have failed in your controls," said Alonso. "The defendant must have caused injury to the victims through their actions."

The case is Linde et al. v. Arab Bank, US District Court for the Eastern District of New York, No. 04-2799.

RANGPUR: The monthly divisional business assessment and views-sharing meeting for July- 2014 for officials of the principal, regional and corporate branch offices of Sonali Bank Limited (SBL) was held here on Friday.

General Manager of Rangpur General Managers’ Office AFM Ali Asgar presided over the meeting at his conference room in the city.

All regional chiefs, chiefs of all six principal offices, regional offices, corporate branches and senior officials of the SBL from all eight districts in Rangpur division participated.

The meeting assessed business achievements of all regional, corporate, principal offices and branches of the bank during the month of July last and put maximum emphasis on achieving all fixed business indexes during the current fiscal.

Expressing satisfaction on achieving the fixed business targets during the last fiscal, the General Manager asked the field level officials for achieving all set business targets of the bank during the current fiscal year.

He suggested for ensuring full proof security at the strong rooms of all 113 branches in Rangpur division as per directions of the Head Office of the bank and strengthening internal control and compliance in every branch.

The General Manager directed the SBL officials for having adequate knowledge about money laundering, increasing capitals and profits through providing best services, realising classified loans, disbursing loans in the agriculture, SME and other exploring prospective sectors for speeding up poverty alleviation activities.

 EXIM Bank Limited shifted its Sylhet branch to a new location at Mujtaba Tower, Zinda Bazar in Sylhet on Saturday.

Dr. Mohammed Haider Ali Miah, Managing Director of the bank inaugurated the branch as the chief guest. Md. Fariduddin Ahmed, Adviser, M. Sirajul Islam and Md. Sirajul Haq Mia, Deputy Managing Directors as well as senior executives of Exim Bank and local elites were present at the programme.

The central bank’s move for maintaining higher cash reserve requirement (CRR) to absorb access liquidity from the banking system would fail to contain inflationary pressure rather it would adversely hamper private sector investment in the country.

The monetary policy for the first half of current fiscal (2014-15) may fail to achieve the target of taming inflation to 6.5 percent and ensuring the private sector credit growth of 16.5 percent, set for the first half of FY2014-15.

The Unnayan Onnesha (UO), an independent multidisciplinary think-tank, made the observation in its August issue of Bangladesh Economic Update released on Saturday.

The UO made the observation of the Monetary Policy Statement announced for the first half of the current fiscal year by the Bangladesh Bank recently.

“Funds are becoming costly for the private investors resulting in continuation of decline in private investment. On contrary, the government depends more on banks for financing budget deficits and non-development expenditure, which is causing inflationary pressure in the economy,” the UO added.

Besides, debt-instrument-based deficit financing of the budget results in inflation and along with high interest rates on government savings stifle investment demand, which ultimately decelerate the rate of growth in gross domestic product (GDP), cautioned the think tank.

A review of the previous monetary policy statements indicates that the targets set for inflation and private sector credit growth were not achieved. Actual inflation was calculated at 7.35 percent, 7.35 percent and 8.05 percent against the target of below 7 percent, 7 percent and 7.5 percent in second half of FY14, first half of FY14 and second half of FY13 respectively, whereas the actual private sector credit growth was 15.7 percent, 11.1 percent and 11.4 percent against the target of 16.5 percent, 15.5 percent and 18.3 percent, the UO mentioned.

The research organisation evinces that the CRR has been raised by 50 basis points in order to address the increased reverse repo operations with consequent costs to central bank, while the interest rates on national savings certificates and bonds are between 12.6 percent and 13.5 percent causing the sales of national savings certificates and bonds to increase by 4.21 percent in the FY14 over the FY13 and cashing of savings tools to decline by 44.12 percent during the corresponding period.

Meanwhile, the interest rate spreads have on average increased from 4.99 percent in January 2014 to 5.22 percent in May 2014, implying that the deposit rates have fallen faster than the lending rates, says the Unnayan Onnesha.

The formulation of monetary policies in recent periods by the central bank keeping the policy rate higher in order to contain inflationary pressure has not been effective in ensuring sufficient growth in private sector credit causing the private investment to decline from 22.50 percent of GDP in FY2011-12 to 21.75 percent in FY2012-13 and then to 21.39 percent in FY2013-14, shows the research organisation.

The think tank further finds that while the private investment is on declining trend in recent periods, the government has increasingly been borrowing from domestic sources in order to finance budget deficits. In FY2011-12, the government borrowed Tk. 20822.11 crore to finance the budget deficit, while government borrowing amounted to Tk. 24549.10 crore and Tk. 13173.10 crore in FY2012-13 and FY2013-14 (July-February) respectively, stifling the investment demand in the economy.

Besides, poor risk management, fraudulence driven by captured governance in the banking system resulting in lower profit to the stakeholders, adoption of contractionary monetary policy characterised by higher CRR would put the country’s banking sector in traps, says the research organisation.

“The risk of inflationary pressure and insignificant growth of private sector credit from domestic sources can be checked by a farsighted and creative harmonisation of both fiscal and monetary policies since increased private investment and employment creation will ensure the use of money in productive sectors and make money and fiscal multiplier effects work in the economy,” adds the UO.