Bangladesh Bank (BB) has directed all the banks to ensure network and cash at ATM (Automated Teller Machine) and POS (Point of Sale) round the clock so that clients could make card based electronic transaction anytime.

The central bank in a circular today ordered all the banks to connect their ATM and POS with the network uninterruptedly. It also asked the banks to make available cash at ATM booths all time, reports BSS.

The banks must have to display notice in front of the closed or inoperative ATM booths.

Besides, if the services of ATM and POS of any bank are remained closed for unavoidable circumstances, they must have to inform the clients instantly, added the circular. 

BEIJING: Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Ltd. (ICBC), the country’s largest lender by market value, said Saturday it plans to issue preferred stocks worth up to 80 billion yuan (about 13 billion U.S. dollars) to replenish its capital.

Up to 45 billion yuan in preferred shares will be issued in the domestic market and another 35 billion yuan in preferred shares are planned for the overseas market, ICBC said in a filing on the Shanghai Stock Exchange.

According to the plan approved by ICBC’s board, the bank will issue the preferred shares to no more than 200 qualified investors through a private offering in the domestic market.

The issuance of preference shares overseas will be carried out independently from the domestic offering, according to ICBC.

Voting rights for the planned preferred stocks will be restricted, ICBC said.

As bad loans build up, other Chinese lenders, such as Agricultural Bank of China Ltd. and Bank of China Ltd., said earlier this year they planned to issue preferred shares worth billions of dollars.

The non-performing loan ratio climbed to 1.08 percent for Chinese commercial banks by the end of June this year, according to the China Banking Regulatory Commission.

To help banks meet new global capital rules known as Basel III, the China Securities Regulatory Commission announced in March this year new rules of the pilot program allowing eligible companies to issue preference shares.

Preference shares, along with common shares, are two primary types of stocks that companies offer to investors. Preference shareholders have priority rights over ordinary shareholders in distribution of profits and residual assets.

Unlike common shares, preference shares function more like a bond. They are rated by major credit-rating companies and their prices are affected by changes in interest rates.

Khalid Rahim has been elected Independent Director of the Board of Al-Arafah Islami Bank Limited and Chairman of the Board Audit Committee of the bank.

The Board at its 260th meeting held in Dhaka recently unanimously elected Khalid as Independent Director of the bank, said a press release.

Khalid Rahim is a fellow member (FCA) of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales and a member of ICAB (Bangladesh). Currently he is senior consultant of Rahman Rahman Huq, Chartered Accountants, KPMG Bangladesh.

The central Bank has issued a new note of Taka 17,000 crore in the market ahead of the Eid-ul-Fitr.

Out of the amount, Taka 10,000 crore is new and the rest of the currency worth of Taka 7,000 crore is old note, reports BSS.

The Bangladesh Bank (BB) has issued around the note of Taka 4,000 crore in the last two days.

“Huge amount of bank note had been possible to issue in the market as the central bank had full preparation for the demand of the subscribers”, said concerned bank official.

The new note begun to issue in the market from the very beginning of the Ramzan. The demand of the new note at the beginning of Ramzan was around Taka 400-600 crore in per day but it rose to Taka 1500 crore, on in average during the last week, said an official of currency department of the Bangladesh Bank.

Bank of England officials are still concerned by the UK economy’s weakness while business leaders have urged that the “time has come” to raise rates, reports AP.
The nine members of the Monetary Policy Committee voted to keep rates at 0.5%, as expected.
They agreed that while “employment had continued to increase robustly… wage growth had been surprisingly weak”.
But business leaders believe the Bank may be being too cautious and should start raising interest rates.
James Sproule, chief economist at the Institute of Directors said: “The economic recovery is strong enough that the time has come to be making progress towards [interest rates of 3-4%].”
However, the minutes point out that “there were early signs that global growth was weakening, and an unexpected increase in interest rates when real wages were not yet rising could… destabilise the recovery.
Wage growth excluding bonuses slowed to a record low 0.7% in the three months to May.The minutes added: “The committee agreed that no increase was warranted at this meeting, although for some members the decision had become more balanced in the past few months than earlier in the year”.
Mr Sproule said: “We remain concerned that there is insufficient appreciation that we are experiencing extraordinary monetary policy, and it should not be assumed that such extraordinary policy can continue.
“Looking ahead two years, we would like to be reaching a point where monetary policy could again be effective, which means interest rates in the range of 3-4%.”