Dr Rashid Ahmed, Deputy General Manager of Sonali Bank Limited, speaks at a review meeting on disbursement and renewal of loans of the bank in Kishoreganj on Tuesday. Sonali Bank organised a meeting to review disbursement and renewal of loans and to assess progress in loan recovery at its Principal Branch in Kishoreganj on Tuesday. Dr Rashid Ahmed, Deputy General Manager, Sonali Bank, Principal Branch presided over the meeting, said a press release. News:Daily Sun Bangladesh/4- sep-2013

Khondker Fazle Rashid, Managing Director of Dhaka Bank, hands over a gift to one of the winners at the launching ceremony of credit card reward programme in Dhaka recently. Dhaka Bank Limited launched credit card reward programme titled ‘MILEAGE’ as another milestone in the bank’s continuous effort for its cardholders to provide extra value. Under the programme, the credit cardholders of the bank will earn 1 Mileage point for every Tk 50 local purchase or $1 (or equivalent) foreign purchase, said a press release. Khondker Fazle Rashid, Managing Director of Dhaka Bank, distributed gifts among the winners in Dhaka recently. Niaz Habib, Additional Managing Director, Emranul Huq, Deputy Managing Director, and senior executives of the bank attended the function. News:Daily Sun Bangladesh/3-Sep-2013

Helal Ahmed Chowdhury, Managing Director and CEO of Pubali Bank Limited, launches MasterCard Debit Card at a function in Dhaka on Monday. As part of its move to provide modern and technology-based banking, Pubali Bank Limited has launched MasterCard Debit Card for its clients. Helal Ahmed Chowdhury, Managing Director and CEO of Pubali Bank Limited launched the MasterCard Debit Card at a function as chief guest, said a press release. MA Halim Chowdhury, Additional Managing Director of Pubali Bank Limited and Ari Sarkar, Division President, South Asia, MasterCard Worldwide, Vikas Varma, Area Head (South Asia) of MasterCard Worldwide and Syed Mohammad Kamal, Country Manager, MasterCard Worldwide, Bangladesh were present. In his speech, Helal Ahmed Chowdhury said that Pubali Bank is committed to provide the best and innovative banking services at the fastest possible time as per the requirement of the banking sector. News:Daily Sun Bangladesh/3-Sep-2013

DHAKA, Sept 1: Bangladesh Bank (BB) on Sunday has issued a guideline on mobile financial services (MFS) to prevent fake and illegal money transaction through mobile phone across the country. BB has imposed some restrictions on ‘Cash In’ or ‘Cash Out’ transactions to check irregularities. In the guideline issued Sunday, the central bank asked all banks to strictly follow its instructions about know-your- customer (KYC) for opening process of mobile accounts and no transactions can be made before the bank concerned scrutinizes and approves application of the client/KYC Form. Agents will make transactions after being sure about the account of a client and if any irregularity is detected, the bank will have to cancel agency-ship straight. It will not be allowed to deposit money (Cash In) or transfer money (P2P) to an agent’s mobile account from another agent’s account. An agent will not be able to deposit cash in his account for more than five times daily. A client will be able to deposit cash in his mobile account for maximum five times daily and twenty times monthly. A client will be able to withdraw cash from his account for maximum three times daily and ten times monthly. The highest Tk 25,000 can be deposited and withdrawn each time from a client’s account daily but the total monthly deposit and withdrawal amount will not be more than Tk 1,50,000. For private to private (P2P) payments, the previous limit- maximum Tk 10,000 on a daily basis and Tk 25,000 on a monthly basis-will remain unchanged. But these limits will not be applicable for private to business (P2B), business to private (B2P), private to government (P2G) and government to private (G2P) transactions. BB gave permission to operate mobile financial services in 2010, aimed at bringing poor and unbanked people under banking activities as well as facilitating the expatriate to send remittance in rural area safely. News:The independent Bangladesh/2-Sep-2013

Rejaul Karim Byron Private credit growth lowest in 13 yearsPrivate sector credit grew by only 11.04 percent last fiscal year — the lowest in 13 years — due to low investment as uncertainty ahead of the national polls has dented investor confidence, bankers said. Extreme caution adopted by banks in the backdrop of various scams in recent times also squeezed credits, they said. Such credit grew by 19.72 percent in fiscal 2011-12. After the grand alliance government led by the Awami League assumed power in 2009, the growth was more than 24 percent in fiscal years 2009-2011. The lowest growth, 10.75 percent, was seen last in fiscal 1999-2000. Zahid Hussain, lead economist at World Bank in Bangladesh, said private sector credit growth usually marks a fall in every election year. But this year the situation worsened due to prolonged political violence that disrupted economic activities, he added. A slow recovery in the global economies, the cancellation of Bangladesh’s GSP (generalised system of preferences) in the US, and compliance issues at garment factories following a few deadly accidents also took a toll on investment, Hussain said. Bankers were extra-cautious in giving loans after several banking irregularities were detected, the economist said. Bangladesh Bank Governor Atiur Rahman sat with the chief executives of all banks on August 25 and said there was no problem from the supply side in granting loans. Rahman also asked the bankers to encourage long-term investors and extend cooperation in getting loans without hassle. The governor made the call a month after the BB announced its monetary policy where the private sector’s credit growth target was cut over the previous fiscal year’s. The target for the current fiscal year was brought down to 16.5 percent from 18.5 percent in the previous year. The central bank’s monetary policy statement released in July said the credit growth slowdown is partly due to sluggish investment demand in the lead up to the national elections and tighter lending practices by banks. Also there emerged two new channels through which entrepreneurs can access overseas lenders, including existing term borrowing from the external sector, the BB said. One existing channel is borrowing by local firms for term credit purpose with most having a maturity beyond five years — around $1.48 billion was approved in fiscal 2013 compared with $1 billion a year ago. Private capital flows to the local companies have also grown due to the addition of short-term foreign currency loan for working capital purpose. These newly introduced facilities in the form of ‘buyer credit’, which importers can enjoy with a tenure of up to one year, and ‘discounted export bills’ have led to a $784 million inflow during the July-May period of fiscal 2013, the BB said. A central bank official said, if foreign borrowing is included, the private sector credit growth will increase by more than 1 percentage point. Frequent shutdowns and political violence in the first half of the year have dented confidence of the investors who are still following a wait-and-see policy, he said. Bangladesh’s import increases every year but the volume of such trade dropped by 4.36 percent last fiscal year, the official said. Capital machinery import fell by 15.85 percent last year and that of industrial raw materials by 2.50 percent, according to LC (letter of credit) settlement statistics of the central bank. Officials at some private and state banks said a number of banking scams were detected in 2012 and the BB, for the first time, identified those as criminal offences and referred to the Anti-Corruption Commission. The anti-graft body interrogated officials of both public and private banks on suspicion of their involvement in the irregularities. As a result, the bank officials became overcautious in granting loans, an official of Sonali Bank said. The BB also cut the credit growth targets, by 8 percent to 12 percent, of five state banks who disburse a big chunk of the total credit. News:The Daily Star Bangladesh/2-Spe-2013