The people who want to go to Malaysia on work visa can have financial assistance from a bank to meet their cost of migration.

The state-owned banks and Expatriate Welfare Bank already made arrangement to provide the potential migrants with easy loan to cover their all expenses including air passages, visa fee, training fee, medical bill, travel taxes and other related expenditure.

The bank initially estimated that the cost of migration for a person would be around Taka 40,000 and the bank would offer people the entire amount as loan at only 9 percent annual rate of interest.

The bank will recover the loan on installments from the salary or wages of the migrants under agreements with their employers. The persons, authorized by the migrants, can also pay back the loans on installments.

“A total of 5,00,000 workers from Bangladesh will get jobs in Malaysia in the next five years. Each of the migrants can have loan from the Expatriate Welfare Bank,” the Bank’s Managing Director CM Koyes Sami told BSS.

News: The Daily Sun/Bangladesh/25-Nov-12

AAM Zakaria, Managing Director of First Security Islami Bank Limited, inaugurates an ATM booth of the bank at Banasree in Dhaka recently.

First Security Islami Bank Limited opened an ATM booth at Banasree in Dhaka recently.

AAM Zakaria, Managing Director of First Security Islami Bank opened the booth, said a press release.

Among others, Deputy Managing Directors of the bank Md. Abdul Quddus and Syed Waseque Md. Ali, SEVPs Kazi Osman Ali and Syed Habib Hasnat, Head of Divisions were also present on the occasion.

It may be noted that in the first phase 30 ATM booths of the bank will be established by December 2012 in various location of the country and 50 more ATM booths will be opened in the second phase across the country.

News: The Daily Sun/Bangladesh/25-Nov-12

Banks' scope to invest in the stockmarket will remain high despite a proposed amendment to the Banking Companies Act, as the banks have a strong capital base now.

The amendment will allow the banks to invest 40 percent of their capital in stocks though the present law allows them to invest 10 percent of their total liabilities in the stockmarket.

After the amendment, banks will be able to raise their stock investment up to Tk 23,000 crore from Tk 16,000 crore recorded in September.

According to Bangladesh Bank statistics, the amount of total capital in the banks was Tk 56,201 crore in June.

When the stockmarket was booming in 2010, the banks' investment in stocks was below Tk 20,000 crore.

Though as per the draft amendment, the scope for banks' investment in the stockmarket will decrease, the remaining scope is still much higher than the global standard, said a BB official.

The International Monetary Fund also suggested that banks' investment in the stockmarket should be 25 percent of their capital.

The central bank official said the banks' capital has grown much in the recent time as per the Basel-II requirements, but their capital will increase further when Basel-III will take effect soon.

According to the central bank statistics, the total capital of the banks was Tk 20,578 crore in 2008.

The banking sector has witnessed an increase of Tk 35,623 crore in their capital in the last four years.

It means the overall capital growth has been 173 percent over the last four years with an annual average growth of about 49 percent.

As per Basel-II requirements, banks need to maintain their capital at 10 percent of their risk weighted assets. But in reality, the banks have been able to maintain their capital at 11.31 percent, which is more than the required level.

The BB official said, this was mainly due to the transfer of a large portion of their profit to capital. As a result, the base of the banking system has become stronger, he added.

News: The Daily Star/Bangladesh/25-Nov-12

Asian markets were mostly up Friday following a rally in the previous session, while dealers await another meeting on Greece’s bailout and the resumption of talks on the US fiscal cliff. Trade was subdued with Japanese markets closed for a public holiday and the United States celebrating Thanksgiving on Thursday.

Sydney ended flat, dipping 0.10 points to 4,413.0 while Seoul gained 0.62 per cent, or 11.83 points, to close at 1,911.33. Hong Kong added 0.79 per cent, or 170.78 points, to end at 21,913.98 and Shanghai closed up 0.58 per cent, or 11.77 points, at 2,027.38. One dealer said jitters would likely have set in over upcoming negotiations between Democrats and Republicans to hammer out a deal on the fiscal cliff of tax hikes and spending cuts that comes into effect on January 1.

“I think next week the market will face the reality that there’s still a lot of work to do on the fiscal cliff and the debt ceiling,” said Chris Weston, chief market strategist at IG Markets in Australia.

Global markets have soared over the past week on hopes that a compromise will be found in Washington that will avert the fiscal cliff, which will likely send the economy into recession if it comes into effect. The euro was holding onto recent gains against the dollar as dealers remain confident eurozone finance ministers will agree to release the next batch of bailout cash to Athens when they meet Monday, after a hold-up in talks this week. Sentiment was also boosted by comments Thursday from French Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici that a deal on Greek debt would be reached.

“We seem to be poised to fulfill the conditions for a lasting exit from the eurozone crisis,” Moscovici told France’s Senate after returning from the failed talks in Brussels.

He said that although politicians failed to reach a deal this week, “we will as of Monday”.
The single currency bought $1.2905 in Asian trade, compared with $1.2875 in London on Thursday while it was also at 106.25 yen from 106.22 yen.

Investors brushed off a closely-watched survey by research firm Markit showing the region’s manufacturing activity in November little changed from lows experienced in October.

Markit’s eurozone Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) for November stood at 45.8 points, from 45.7 in October, which was the lowest since June 2009.

“For the fourth quarter of 2012 so far, PMI data suggest the strongest contraction of output since the second quarter of 2009,” Markit said in a report.
The dollar was at 82.32 yen, from 82.42 yen.

Trading on foreign exchange markets was quiet owing to Japan’s public holiday, but the yen was still under pressure on expectations the country’s central bank will unveil a new round of monetary easing next month.

Investors began selling the unit last week after the man likely to become prime minister after a December 16 general election said he would push for unlimited loosening monetary policy by the bank.

Regional traders were also drawing support from Thursday’s release of preliminary data by HSBC showing Chinese manufacturing activity grew for the first time in 13 months in November.

News: The Daily Independent/Bangladesh/24-Nov-12

 Expatriate Bangladeshis will remit home $14 billion in the current fiscal, according to the World Bank. The latest issue of the Bank’s Migration and Development Brief, released in Washington on Wednesday, said expatriates across the world would send home a total of $534 billion in 2012. It added that remittance flow to the developing world is expected to exceed $406 billion this year, an increase of 6.5 per cent over the previous year.

Hans Timmer, Director of the bank’s Development Prospects Group, said in a statement, “Although migrant workers are, to a large extent, adversely affected by the slow growth in the global economy, remittance volumes have remained remarkably resilient, providing a vital lifeline to not only poor families but a steady and reliable source of foreign currency in many poor remittance recipient countries.”

The global lender estimates India will top the list of remittance receivers as its expatriates will remit over $70 billion in 2012, followed by China ($66 billion), the Philippines and Mexico ($24 billion each) and Nigeria ($21 billion).

If the World Bank’s brief forecast proves to be correct, Pakistani expatriates will remit home the same amount of money as Bangladeshis this year. Other large recipients include Nigeria, Egypt, Vietnam and Lebanon, according to the Brief.  Last year, Bangladesh stood eighth in the list.

As per Bangladesh Bank data, expatriates had remitted more than $12.16 billion in the last financial year, which was around $1.16 higher than the previous year.

According to estimates, remittances to developing countries will grow by 7.9
per cent in 2013, 10.1 per cent in 2014 and 10.7 per cent in 2015 to reach $534 billion in 2015.

News: The Daily Independent/Bangladesh/24-Nov-12