Dr. Cecep Effendi, Director General of CIRDAP, Ishtiaque Ahmed Chowdhury, Managing Director of Trust Bank Ltd, and Sukamal Sinha Chowdhury, General Manager of Bangladesh Bank, are seen at a meeting in Dhaka recently.

Trust Bank Ltd organised a views exchange meeting with CIRDAP and Bangladesh Bank to discuss the ways for development of the SMEs.

Dr. Cecep Effendi, Director General of CIRDAP, Ishtiaque Ahmed Chowdhury, Managing Director of Trust Bank, and Sukamal Sinha Chowdhury, General Manager of Bangladesh Bank, attended the views exchanging meeting held recently, said a press release.

During the meeting, they exchanged views about strategic issues of SME, agro-business and renewable energy.

TIM Rawshan Zadeed, Head of SME and Green Banking, conducted the discussion meeting. High officials of the organisations were present.

Bad loans in the industrial sector rose 80 percent in fiscal 2012-13, due to political unrest in the first half of the year.

The industrial sector’s bad loans on June 30, 2013 stood at Tk 15,553 crore, up from Tk 8,686 crore registered a year ago, according to data from Bangladesh Bank.

Of the total defaulted loans, the four state-run banks account for Tk 6,865 crore and the 30 private banks Tk 5,952 crore.
Bankers blamed the political unrest and infrastructure deficiencies for the sharp rise, adding that the situation has even staggered the expansion plans of different industries.

“Scams in the banking sector have also pushed up the bad loans,” said Shafiqul Alam, managing director of Jamuna Bank that witnessed a rise in its default loans due to Bismillah Towels.

Helal Ahmed Chowdhury, managing director of Pubali Bank, said a political consensus is a must to boost the confidence of the business community, who have taken on a wait-and-see position.

The lack of confidence is also evident in the import of capital machinery and raw materials.

Overall imports dropped 4.36 percent year-on-year in fiscal 2012-13, with capital machinery import declining 15.85 percent and industrial raw materials 2.50 percent.

Kevin John Steele, managing director of Biman Bangladesh Airlines, and KS Tabrez, managing director of Dutch-Bangla Bank, shake hands after signing a deal recently. Air travellers from Bangladesh can now pay for Biman tickets online through DBBL Nexus Debit Card, VISA card and MasterCard. Photo: DBBL

Air travellers from Bangladesh can now make online payments for Biman Bangladesh tickets through Nexus Debit Card,

VISA card and MasterCard of Dutch-Bangla Bank (DBBL), the bank said in a statement yesterday.

Kevin John Steele, managing director and chief executive of Biman Bangladesh Airlines, and KS Tabrez, managing director of Dutch-Bangla Bank, signed a deal recently,

enabling Bang-ladeshi passengers buy Biman e-ticket using VISA card and MasterCard issued by any Bangladeshi bank.

Biman website has been linked up with DBBL’s 3D secured Nexus Gateway for e-payments by local online purchases, according to the statement.

 
Earlier, passengers only with VISA card and MasterCard issued from outside Bangladesh could buy the e-tickets through the Kasikorn or K Payment Gateway of Thailand.

BASIC Bank has sent a rejoinder to a news item headlined “Curious buying spree” published in The Daily Star on Wednesday.

The report said Sheikh Abdul Hye Bachchu, the bank’s chairman, has spent around Tk 150 crore on 11 deep-sea fishing trawlers in less than two years.

But BASIC Bank denied the allegation, saying its chairman has three fishing vessels namely Crystal -1, Crystal-2 and Karnatori.

The rejoinder said, “However, it is agreeable that as a part of business expansion, four vessels — two namely Silver Sea 1, Silum Chai 29 and two others are in the process to be purchased by Mr Hye which are yet to be registered in the name of his company.”

Four vessels namely Peninsula 1 & 4 and Speed 1 & 2 as mentioned in the report do not belong to him (Bachchu) and he knows nothing about the ownership of these vessels, it claimed.

The bank also said Mr Hye is an established businessman and has the capacity to procure and operate the vessels which he is possessing. He had been the Managing Director of BM Builders and BM Telecom (Agent of British Telecom) since long.

“Mr Hye possesses adequate land property and 23 flats, of which, 16 have been sold out and sale proceeds have been utilised for expansion of business. Some of these flats were located in Old DOHS and were sold at very high price,” read the rejoinder.

The mentioned vessels are owned by a limited company named Eden Fisheries where there are four directors,

including Hye.  As per rules and regulations of Bangladesh Bank as well as Bank Company Act, there is no bar to a chairman or a director of a bank owning businesses provided that the business is not connected with any interest or function of the bank concerned to which he/she is a director or chairman, it added.

It further claims The Daily Star report links Hye with the operational activity and performance of BASIC Bank. BASIC Bank is totally a separate identity which has no relation with the business of Hye.

But linking the name and business of Hye with operational performances of BASIC Bank seems “a personal attack against him and we are expressing our strong protest against it”.
OUR REPLY
The Daily Star published the report based on the findings from the sellers of the vessels and the deep-sea fishing industry. The correspondent talked to Eden Fisheries’ present and ex-employees who also confirmed the purchase.
Sheikh Abdul Hye Bachchu in his own admission has stated that he now owns three vessels — Crystal 1,

Crystal 2 and Karnatori — which The Daily Star has come to know he has procured in 2011 after he became the chairman of BASIC Bank. He also admits that as part of business expansion four vessels — Silver Sea 1, Silum Chai 29 and two others are in the process to be purchased by him.

The Daily Star has been confirmed by multiple sources, including one of his employees whom we cannot name, that he already owns Silver Sea 1 and Silum Chai 29. He has also purchased Peninsula 1, Peninsula 3 and Speed 2. This paper has recordings of the conversations with the sources.

Such buying spree has created curiosity in the industry which The Daily Star has pointed out.  We therefore stand by our report.
The Daily Star did not link Hye’s buying of fishing vessels with the troubled BASIC Bank. The report was on his personal business. We just gave a picture of the bank where Hye,

owner of Eden Fisheries, has been chairing the board of directors since 2009. Bangladesh Bank in an investigation revealed how the bank’s board approved many sub-standard loans throwing the bank into great risk.

About the business background of Hye, this newspaper tried for over one month to contact him to know about his business and get his comments on the findings.

We did not find anything written (except for his name) in his profile on the BASIC Bank’s website. When we failed to reach him in person and by phone, we faxed and emailed to BASIC Bank’s headquarters seeking his response. Yet, he did not reply.

Bangladesh Bank (BB) has started holding meetings of bank officials and depositors to create awareness about Deposit Insurance Scheme (DIS), which is designed to minimize the risk that the depositors suffer for placing funds with a bank.

As part of this move, the central bank held meetings of bank officials and depositors in Chittagong and Khulna regions. It will organize such meetings in different regions in the next two months.

“Customers of commercial banks are not aware about the DIS . . . we are organizing such meetings to aware them because protecting the interest of depositors is our prime responsibility,” Khagesh Chanda, General Manager of BB’s Deposit Insurance Scheme, told BSS.

The purpose of DIS is to help increase market discipline, reduce moral hazard in the financial sector and provide safety nets at the minimum cost to the public in the event of a bank failure, he added.

He said BB will organize such meeting of bank officials-depositors in Barisal, Rajshahi, Rangpur, Bogra, Sylhet, Mymensingh and Dhaka.

BB set the rate of premium for deposit insurance and coverage at Taka 0.07 (7 paisa) for every 100 taka to minimise any risk connected to the loss of depositors’ fund with a scheduled bank. Premium rate will be at Taka 0.08 from the first half of the calendar year of 2014.

As per provisions, the premiums collected from the insured banks are deposited in an account called the Deposit Insurance Trust Fund, maintained by the central bank