Industries Minister Amir Hossain Amu yesterday acclaimed the Bangladesh Krishi Bank (BKB) for its significant role in turning Bangladesh into a food-autarchy, reports BSS.
He referred to the devastating flood in 1998 when the country witnessed food shortage, but the bank’s credit programme immensely helped overcome the situation in only two years after the disaster, said an official handout. The minister was speaking at a rally of representatives, arranged by the Karmachari Union of BKB in the auditorium of BKB Bhanan in the city. State minister for finance MA Mannan spoke on the occasion as the special guest. 
President of BKB Karmachari Union M Abdullah Khan presided over the function while chairman of BKB Governing Body Alauddin A Majid, managing director M Abdus Salam, director M Mahbubur Rahman Bhuiyan and Jatiya Sramik League president M Sukkur Mahmud addressed the function.
Amu favoured raising manpower of the BKB so that the bank can contribute more to the rural economy.
He called upon the BKB employees and Karmachari Union leaders to work with dedication and sincerity to supplement the government’s efforts in turning Bangladesh into a middle-income country.
The BKB disbursed highest Tk 6,000 core as loans among share croppers, marginal farmers, poor farmers and hard core poor last year. Out of Tk 37 lakh loan recipients, Tk 36 lakh are farmers, the bank sources said.

The central bank governor Dr Atiur Rahman yesterday asked the anti money laundering cell of insurance companies to strictly comply with rules and monitor the suspicious transactions to prevent money laundering and terrorist financing He also suggested the cell to send the report of suspicious transactions, if any, immediately to the central bank for prompt action. He, however, said money laundering and terrorist financing is not an internal problem, rather it’s a global concern.
The governor was addressing a conference on ‘Anti Money Laundering for Insurance Companies’ at a city hotel on Sunday. Bangladesh Bank (BB) and Insurance Development and Regulatory Authority (IDRA) jointly organised the conference.
Mere law can not check the problem of money laundering and terrorist financing, said the governor stressing the need for a joint effort of all concerned to fight against money laundering and terror financing form the country. He also highlighted the urgency for ensuring transparency and accountability in the country’s financial sector with a view to preventing money laundering and terrorist financing.
To reinforce the vigilance against money laundering and terrorist financing, the central bank has already introduced the software 'goAML', said Atiur. 
At present all banks, non-bank financial institutions and agencies submit cash transaction reports to the central bank through this software which, he said, helps the authority identify the suspicious transactions.
Addressing as the special guest, Banks and Financial Institutions Division (BFID) of Finance Ministry Secretary Dr M Aslam Alam said the country has enough rules and regulations but proper implementation of those are not satisfactory. 
The policy makers are formulating laws one after another but somehow these are not exercised accordingly, claimed the secretary.
“Vested groups are very active and commit crimes whenever they find any chance, so we have to be alert to check the ill practice. We can not stop the happenings, but it is possible to check or reduce the offences”, said the finance secretary. 
He expected that the joint initiative could reduce the crime substantially. 
The country’s economy is now well connected with the global economy and it needs to attain the trust of the global society for further development, said the secretary. 
To get confidence of the global society, BFID secretary said, the central bank has already taken several initiatives to check the money laundering and terrorist financing from the year 2008. 
The risk of the money laundering and the terror financing is reduced substantially due to strict monitoring by central bank and BFID. 
The secretary underscored the need for automation of country’s insurance sector immediately to identify the suspicious transactions. 
He also suggested to install modern financial software to prevent the fake and suspicious transactions.
The conference was addressed among others by the Bangladesh Bank Deputy Governor Abu Hena Md 
Razi Hassan, Bangladesh Insurance Association President Shiek Kabir Hossain and Member of IDRA Md Quddus Khan. 
The IDRA Chairman M Shefaque Ahmed presided over the anti money laundering conference.

The Bangladesh Bank (BB) has asked all scheduled banks to appoint five to ten officials in each bank at the district level to work as mentors for grooming information and communication technology (ICT) entrepreneurs.

This initiative has been taken to groom entrepreneurs in the ICT sector at the district level, according to the BB circular issued on Thursday.

In response to an instruction made by the ICT division of the telecom ministry, the central bank asked the scheduled banks to appoint officials to implement the government decision.

The initiative was aimed to create skilled manpower to create a strong base for Bangladeshi products in the international ICT market, said the ICT Division letter. Earlier, the government completed the project "Freelancer to Entrepreneurs Development Programme." Now its target is to have entrepreneurs across the country.

ICT Division Secretary Nazrul Islam Khan mentioned in the letter that the new entrepreneurs would be recruited at different High Tech Parks including Kaliakoir High Tech Park and Jessore High Tech Park.

He also said the appointed officials from each district would monitor and guide the entrepreneurs so that they could be interested in their work.

The ministry thinks the initiative will help materialise the government vision 2021 and it will also help build ICT based-society.

BASIC Bank Managing Director Kazi Faqurul Islam has been removed from his position on charges of irregularities and corruption.

Bangladesh Bank Deputy Governor S K Sur Chowdhury told bdnews24.com on Sunday evening that Islam had been removed because of corruption charges and a failure to comply with the MoU signed with the central bank.

“His term would have ended on June 8. We sent him a letter informing him of his removal in the afternoon,” he said.

Bdnews4.com has published reports on loan fraud and irregularities in recruitment and promotion at the state-owned bank.

The reports revealed that the bank’s board of directors had violated Bangladesh Bank’s directives and appointed and promoted unqualified people.

A Bangladesh Bank probe revealed that the bank had even violated its own recruitment rules.

The central bank also found loan frauds worth Tk 35 billion upon inspection at BASIC Bank’s Gulshan, Shantinagar and Dilkusha branches.

Unable to prevent the frauds, Finance Minister AMA Muhith recently announced that the Gulshan branch would be closed down.

 Trust Bank Limited approved 12 percent stock dividend for its shareholders for the year ended on 31st December, 2013.

The approval came at the bank’s 15th Annual General Meeting (AGM) held at Army Golf Club in Dhaka recently.

Major General Ashraf Abdullah Yussuf, Vice Chairman of the bank and Adjutant General of Bangladesh Army presided over the meeting, said a press release.

Ishtiaque Ahmed Chowdhury, Managing Director and CEO of the bank spoke at the function.

Directors Brig Gen KARM Mostafa Kamal, Brig Gen Kazi ASM Arif, Brig Gen Abu Mohammad Munir Alim, Begum Rokeya Din, Helal Uddin Ahmed, Ashrafuzzaman Khan, and Khaled Mahbub Morshed, Company Secretary attended the meeting.

The meeting approved the directors’ report and audited financial statements of the company for the year ended on 31 December 2013.