The Bangladesh Bank on Thursday announced its decision to relax its mandate for commercial banks to pay upfront 70 percent of the government's annual cash incentive to exporters.
Now, the exporters will have to wait for the start of each quarter, when the government disburses the budgetary allocation, to avail the financial support.

In a circular sent to banks with approval to carry out foreign currency transactions, the central bank said that the yearly budget allocation for the advance payment would be disbursed by the Ministry of Finance in four equal instalments in the first week of each quarter.

Previously, the exporters would withdraw in advance 70 percent of the incentive from the approved commercial banks, which would be later repaid by the central bank after the government disbursed funds.
Officials of the related department of the Bangladesh Bank said due to irregular disbursement of government funds, the central bank was not able to pay back the amount in time. In response, the commercial banks would slap as high interest rate as 18 percent over the funds it disbursed to the exporters.

In a separate circular, the Bangladesh Bank announced that the time to apply for the government's incentive would be extended. According to the statement, the exporters will now be able to appeal for the incentive after shipping products listed on the Letter of Credit (LC) in different consignments.

Earlier, the deadline to apply for the cash incentive was 180 days from the day of the price repatriation. As a result, many exporters could not apply for the aid after shipping products of the same LC in different batches.

Eastern Bank Ltd (EBL) has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Chittagong Women Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CWCCI) to help develop women entrepreneurship in the country

Md. Khurshed Alam, head of SME, EBL and Gulshanara Ali, acting president of CWCCI signed the MoU on behalf of their respective organizations at the SME fair venue, Polo Ground Chittagong recently.

 
Anwar Faruq Talukder, Head of Small Business, Md. Saiful Islam, Md. Abdul Aziz Unit Heads from EBL, Sharmin Husain, Nasrin Sarwar Meghla, directors of CWCCI were present among others.

Under the MoU, EBL and CWCCI will work jointly for development of women entrepreneurship in Chittagong area.

In addition to the financial support EBL will provide different non-financial services like training to Women entrepreneur, bridging supplier & buyers etc. on the other hand CWCCI will help EBL to find out potential women entrepreneun.

Mutual Trust Bank Limited opened its 81st branch at Iris Noorjehan Tower at Kakrail in Dhaka.

Rashed Ahmed Chowdhury, Vice Chairman of MTB inaugurated the branch at a function Wednesday, said a press release.

Anis A. Khan, Managing Director and CEO of MTB, Md. Ahsan-uz Zaman, Additional Managing Director, Quamrul Islam Chowdhury and Md. Hashem Chowdhury, Deputy Managing Directors, local elite attended the function.

News: The Daily Sun/Bangladesh/21th-Dec-12

Al-hajj Abdus Samad, Chairman of EC of Al-Arafah Islami Bank, presides over a meeting at the bank’s board room in Dhaka Wednesday.

The 372nd meeting of the Executive Committee (EC) of the board of directors of Al-Arafah Islami Bank Limited was held at the bank’s board room in Dhaka Wednesday.

Al-hajj Abdus Samad, Chairman of EC of the bank, presided over the meeting, said a press release.

News: The Daily Sun/Bangladesh/21th-Dec-12

Bangladesh Bank has directed all the banks to better their SME service by taking steps such as skill development of the officials and displaying the SME credit policy at every branch across the country.

In a letter Thursday, the central bank’s SME and Special Programmes Department issued the directive to the banks’ managements.

The directive came after a Bangladesh Bank investigation found that the small and middle entrepreneurs were getting confused about SME credit policy as they were not receiving proper service from the banks’ officials concerned. Such situation was the result of lack of inefficiency among the officials in handling SME loans disbursement, the investigation observed.

In some banks, personal or consumer loan accounts were being logged with those of SME loans, leading the SME people to get confused, the central bank’s letter said.

Bangladesh Bank’s SME department said appropriate training, supervision and monitoring by respective banks’ managements could improve SME loan service.

It, however, said: “SMEs are getting momentum due to relentless endeavors of the central bank and the banks.”

The central bank department, in a separate letter to the branches of different banks, said that the banks could use several refinancing funds of Bangladesh Bank, JICA and ADB to promote SMEs.

News: The Daily Sun/Bangladesh/21th-Dec-12