Major General Ashraf Abdullah Yousuf, Adjutant General, Bangladesh Army and Vice Chairman, Trust Bank Limited, speaks at the inaugural function of Trust Bank Mobile Money Service at Senakunjo, Dhaka Cantonment in Dhaka Sunday.

Trust Bank Limited launched ‘Trust Bank Mobile Money Service’ or its clients.

The Bank announced the new service at a function at Senakunjo at Dhaka Cantonment in Dhaka Sunday, said a press release. From now on, clients of the bank will get a wide-range of facilities like fund transfer, saving and withdrawal of money under this service.

Major General Ashraf Abdullah Yousuf, Adjutant General, Bangladesh Army and Vice Chairman, Trust Bank Limited inaugurated the programme as chief guest. Shah Alam Sarwar, Managing Director of Trust Bank Limited, high officials from army and Trust Bank and Mehboob Chowdhury, Chief Executive Officer of Citycell were also present.

News: The Daily Sun/Bangladesh/13-Nov-12

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) will provide support for the development of the capital market of Bangladesh and also for the Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE).

Teresa Kho, Country Director of ADB gave the assurance while visiting the office of the Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) Monday.

CSE President Al Maruf Khan sought ADB’s cooperation for introducing derivatives market in Bangladesh and also for establishing market integrity after demutualisation of the exchanges.

Maruf Khan also looked for ADB’s cooperation to establish corporate governance in organisational form. Besides, he requested for CSE’s participation in ADB’s local and regional dialogues.

In response, Teresa Kho gave reassurance that she will discuss the issue to ADB headquarters in Manila regarding CSE’s participation in the regional dialogues.

On her arrival, CSE President Al Maruf Khan FCA welcomed Teresa Kho at the CSE. During her visit, Teresa Kho also met CSE Board of Directors.

Mentionable that the CSE has been in close cooperation on various issues on capital market development initiates with the ADB. CSE houses ADB Depository Library arranged through an MoU signed between the ADB and the CSE in July 1998.

CSE Vice President MKM Mohiuddin give vote of thanks and also emphasised ADB’s support for introducing derivatives market in Bangladesh capital market.

Syed Sajid Husain, Chief Executive Officer of CSE made a corporate presentation before ADB delegates.

CSE’s former president Nasiruddin Ahmed Chowdhury, Directors ASM Nayeem, Bijon Chakraborty, Mohammed Mohiuddin FCA, Shahzada Mahmud Chowdhury, Zaidi Sattar and Abdul K A Mubin were also present in the meeting.

News: The Daily Sun/Bangladesh/13-Nov-12

Md Anwar Hossain has been appointed as an independent director to National Bank Limited (NBL).

The board of directors of the Bank at its 333rd meeting on Sunday appointed Md Anwar Hossain as its independent director, said a press release.

Anwar Hossain obtained BSc in Civil Engineering from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology in 1968 and started his career as a businessman.

Md Anwar is the sponsor director of Bank Asia Limited and Managing Director of Opex Group. He is the proprietor of Ena Group.

News: The Daily Sun/Bangladesh/13-Nov-12

After nearly two years, the central bank yesterday resumed the auction of its 30-day bill to mop up excess liquidity from the money market, Bangladesh Bank (BB) officials said.

According to BB data, three foreign commercial banks -- Standard Chartered, HSBC and Citibank NA -- bought the BB bills worth Tk 180 crore against 9.40 percent interest rate.

Along with three foreign banks, local Dutch-Bangla Bank participated in the auction. A total of six bids worth Tk 455 crore were received, of which, three bids worth Tk 180 crore were accepted.

BB data showed the previous auction of the 30-day BB bill was held on November 29, 2010 when no institutions participated in the auction due to a severe liquidity crisis .

“The situation (liquidity crisis) has eased recently. So, we can expect that banks and non-banks will participate in the auction,” said a BB official.

The official said the BB resumed the bill to mop up the surplus liquidity from the money market to help the foreign exchange market become stable.

“More liquidity in the market could make the local currency depreciate against the US dollar,” he said.

From now on, the auction of 30-day BB bill will be held every Monday in a week, he said.

BB usually holds bidding to sell government treasury bills and bonds every week to help the government borrow from the banking sector.

News: The Daily Star/Bangladesh/13-Nov-12

Citibank NA, Bangladesh on Friday honoured some individuals who significantly contributed to the development of Bangladesh and received international recognition for their outstanding work, at the bank's 200th anniversary celebration in Dhaka.

Citi Bangladesh celebrated the bank's 200th anniversary with clients, stakeholders, regulators, civil society and community partners at a hotel in Dhaka on Friday.

The bank honoured individuals who contributed significantly to the development of Bangladesh, according to a statement of the bank yesterday.

Recipients of the honours included: Sir Fazle Hasan Abed for being conferred Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George in 2010; Latifur Rahman for Oslo Business for Peace Award in 2012, and Ramon Magsaysay awardees: Tahrunnesa Ahmed Abdullah, Zafarullah Chowdhury, Reverend Father Richard William Timm, Angela Gomes, Prof Abdullah Abu Sayeed, Matiur Rahman, and AHM Noman Khan.

The other Bangladeshi Magsaysay award recipients -- Prof Muhammad Yunus, Mohammed Yeasin and Rizwana Hasan -- could not attend the event.

Sir Abed, who is also the founder and chairperson of BRAC, presented the keynote paper on financial inclusion, and Latifur Rahman, chairman and chief executive officer of Transcom Group, spoke on ethical business practices.

Rashed Maqsood, managing director and Citi country officer, and Terence K Cuddyre, Citi cluster head of Bangladesh, Brunei and Sri Lanka, were also present.

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