A Bangladeshi Islamic bank went to court to take three Jeddah-based terror-link suspected entities off its shareholders' list in an attempt to avoid international business restrictions.

Social Islami Bank Ltd, known as SIBL, has filed a lawsuit with the Fifth Joint District Judge's Court in Dhaka on Monday, said Ahsanul Karim, a lawyer for the Bank.

The case was filed against two non-government organisations -- International Islamic Relief Organisation (IIRO) and Islamic Charitable Society (ICS) -- and one Saudi individual named Shahir Abdulraouf Batterjee, the scion of a wealthy Saudi family. There are allegations against them that they have terrorist financing links.

“The Bank (SIBL) has filed the case seeking the court's direction on how to take them off its shareholders' list,” Karim told The Daily Star.

He said the SIBL has also sought the court's directive on the fate of the three entities' investments in the bank.

The IIRO and ICS came under the spotlight last month in the media after disclosure of a probe report by the US Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, on HSBC's lax governance to control money laundering.

The report detected that two Bangladeshi private banks -- Islami Bank and SIBL -- have foreign shareholders who are allegedly involved in terrorist financing.

According to SIBL data, both the IIRO and ICS became the bank's shareholders at the time of its inception in 1995.

Though the IIRO owned 8 percent shares of the Bank's Tk 20 crore paid-up capital in 1995, it is not a promoter. The IIRO, which is allegedly linked with Al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden's brother-in-law, now owns only 1.61 percent shares, equivalent to Tk 10.29 crore of the Tk 639.4 crore paid-up capital of the bank.

The ICS now owns only 0.14 percent shares of the bank, equivalent to Tk 89 lakh. Batterjee also has an insignificant number of shares, Bank officials said.

“Their names on our shareholders' list will hamper our international business. We want to get rid of them,” said Muhammad Ali, managing director of the Bank.

"After all the bank has to do business as it deals with Tk 8,000 crore (nearly $1 billion) deposits," he said.

Ali said the IIRO, ICS and the Saudi national have been implicated in terrorist financing by the US government and included on the list of those prohibited to do business in the US.

These organisations also face sanctions from the US Treasury Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) and the United Nations.

“None of these three shareholders has transacted any amount from their accounts till date,” Ali said.

AMM Farhad, deputy managing director of the Bank, said they have communicated several times with these shareholders, including IIRO's Dhaka office, after the central bank asked the bank in 2006 not to transact with these terror-suspect organisations and person. But the Bank did not get any response from them.

“We had no way but to seek the court's intervention to remove them,” said Farhad. “We have taken the move for public interest,” he added.

Bangladesh Bank, the country's central bank, in 2006 took actions against Islami Bank and SIBL for their involvement in money laundering. The central bank in 2006 banned IIRO and ICS and prohibited transactions with them.

“We stopped depositing dividends to IIRO and ICS's accounts since the ban. But we credited dividends after the BB withdrew the restriction in 2010,” said the deputy managing director.

SIBL again froze these organisations' share accounts after their names came in the US Senate probe committee, said Farhad.

Ali said the three became the shareholders of the Bank when MA Mannan, one of the founders of the bank, was in Saudi Arabia on his job in the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) and collected money from there for setting up the Bank.

Ali said, at that time Hamid Algabid, the then OIC secretary general (1989-1996) and a Nigerian politician, also bought some shares of the Bank that now values at Tk 7-Tk 8 lakh.

The Daily Star/Bangladesh/ 1st Aug 2012

HSBC has earned a profit before tax of $12.7 billion, an increase of $1.3 billion, or 11 percent from that in the first half of 2011.

The board of HSBC has declared a second interim dividend of $0.09 per ordinary share for the year 2012.

Profit attributable to ordinary shareholders was $8.2 billion, a decrease of $777 million or 9 percent compared to that in the first half of last year, said a press release.

The net interest income of the HSBC was $19.4 billion, $859 million, or 4 percent lower than that in the first half of 2011. Its net operating income before loan impairment charges and other credit risk provisions of $36.9 billion was $1.2 billion, or 3 percent higher than the first half of last year.

The total operating expenses of $21.2 billion also increased by $694 million, or 3 percent compared to that in the first half of last year. On an underlying basis, and expressed in terms of constant currency, operating expenses increased by 10 percent. HSBC’s cost efficiency ratio remained at 57.5 percent. Loan impairment charges and other credit risk provisions were $4.8 billion in the first half of 2012, $ 467 million lower than the first half of last year.

The Daily Sun/Bangladesh/ 31th July 2012

Alhaj Nasiruddin, Chairman of SIBL, hands over school uniform to a student of UREKA in Dhaka recently.

Social Islami Bank Limited, as a part of its corporate social responsibility, donated school uniform to the students of URECA - a school of under-privileged children.

Alhaj Nasiruddin, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Bank handed over the uniform to Nuruzzaaman Feroz, the founder of UREKA, said a press release Monday.

The Daily Sun/Bangladesh/ 31th July 2012

Mohammed Nurul Amin, Managing Director and CEO of NCC Bank, speaks at a workshop on loan classification at the Bank's training centre in Dhaka.

NCC Bank Limited recently organised a two-day long workshop on "Loan Classification, Provisioning and Rescheduling" for its branch managers in Dhaka.

Mohammed Nurul Amin, Managing Director and CEO of the Bank, formally inaugurated the workshop as the chief guest, said a press release.

The Daily Sun/Bangladesh/ 31th July 2012

Ragib Ali, Vice Chairman of Southeast Bank, inaugurates the newly located branch at Madina Market at Pathantula, Zalalabad Sunday.

Southeast Bank's Pathantula branch of Sylhet was shifted to Haque Mansion of Madina Market, at Pathantula, Zalalabad.

Vice Chairman of the Bank Ragib Ali inaugurated the newly located branch at a function Sunday.

Abdul Hye, director of the Bank and the representative of Karnafuli Tea Co Ltd and Bimolendu Dey, sponsor shareholder were also present at the function.

In the inaugural ceremony, Deputy Managing Director Mohammed Gofran, Senior Executive Vice President and Zonal Head of Sylhet Division Ziaus Shams Chowdhury, Vice President and Head of Pathantula branch Amjad Hussain, all head of branches of Sylhet Division, high government officials, industrialists, businessmen, customers, educationists and other bank officials were present.

The Daily Sun/Bangladesh/ 31th July 2012