Muhammed Ali, Managing Director of Social Islami Bank, speaks at EGM of the Bank in Dhaka recently

The 8th extra-ordinary general meeting (EGM) of Social Islami Bank was held recently at a hotel in Dhaka.

Md. Anisul Hoque, former chairman and director of the Bank presided over the meeting, said a press release.

Directors, shareholders, managing director, deputy managing directors, executives and officers of the Bank attended.

Muhammed Ali, Managing Director of the Bank, thanked the shareholders for their support to make the EGM successful.

The Daily Sun/Bangladesh/ 17th July 2012

RAJSHAHI: Bangladesh Bank Governor Dr Atiur Rahman said the commercial banks have already been asked to keep half of their new branches in rural areas.

He also said the central bank would launch agent banking in rural areas soon as around half the total population of the country still remained out of the banking service.

Dr Atiur Rahman was addressing the inaugural session of regional banking supervision programme, held at a city convention center, organised by Bangladesh Bank, Rajshahi branch Sunday.

Later, he also took part in a farmers’ conference in the city and announced that a specialised cold storage would be built at Iswardi upazilla of Pabna to preserve locally produced vegetables.

Over 150 farmers across the country gathered at the conference, organised by Bangladesh Farmers Development Association, at Alo Asa School premises.

The farmers presented the samples of their produces at the conference.

The Daily Sun/Bangladesh/ 17th July 2012

Finance Minister AMA Muhith Monday said the government will work out a fresh financing structure for construction of the Padma Bridge, but it did not abandon the hope for World Bank fund for the project.

“Finance ministry will reveal this matter to the media after finalising the new work plan for construction of the Padma Bridge”, finance minister said while speaking to journalists after a meeting with President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) Kanayo F Nwanze at the finance division Monday.

Muhith said after exploring possible fund sources for the bridge project, the ministry would plan a new financing structure.

Referring to the WB country director’s interview published in local English daily Sunday, Muhith said, “This interview makes World Bank’s stance clearer on Padma Bridge issue than its earlier statement.”

The government had earlier signed a contract with the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, Japan International Cooperation Agency and Islamic Development Bank to finance the $2.9 billion project.

The Washington-based global lender, the World Bank, was the major financier with a pledge of providing $1.2 billion to the project. On June 29, it cancelled the contract alleging corruption in the project.

The Daily Sun/Bangladesh/ 17th July 2012

Bangladesh Bank Governor Dr. Atiur Rahman, seen with the students who received scholarships awarded by Southeast Bank, at a function in Dhaka Monday.

Bangladesh Bank Governor Dr. Atiur Rahman Monday urged scheduled banks to spend at least one-third of their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) funds for helping the poor but meritorious students.

The key to attain sustainable growth of a populous country like Bangladesh lies with the development of human resources and its root is education, he said.

Dr. Atiur was addressing a function to distribute education scholarship and accord reception to 75 scholarship receivers at bachelor level, organised by Southeast Bank at a city hotel.

Referring that the government has identified human resources development as an integral part of overall uplift planning in view to building a technology and knowledge based digital Bangladesh, Governor said today’s learners will emerge as the driving force of knowledge, information and economic growth of the country in course of time.

Emphasising the need for distributing credit among the poorest segment of the population Atiur said the central bank has been working for building a humane banking system, side by side, implementing the government’s poverty eradication and job creation oriented programme.

He said in CSR activities the scheduled banks invested only Tk 550 million in 2009 while the expenditure was raised to Tk 2.33 billion in 2010.

He urged the banks to expand their CSR heads by investing in renewable energy, bio-gas plant, solar power driven irrigation, providing solar lights to the students of char and haor regions etc.

Dr Atiur advised them to add conditions to the credit holders for participating in CSR activities.

Governor said a big portion of the country’s meritorious section of students does not have opportunity to take higher education, and as a result they are dropped out at a stage of their education. Now, time has come to take steps in finding them out and check this in the greater interest of the nation.

Managing Director of Southeast Bank Mahbubul Alam presided over the ceremony while Chairman of the bank and also Chairman of Southeast Bank Foundation, Alamgir kabir FCA, was present as special guest.

Vice Chairman of the Bank, Raghib Ali, Executive Director of Southeast Bank Foundation, M Nurun Nabi, Director Azim Uddin Ahmed, Adviser of the Foundation Zakir Ahmed Khan and Project Director of the Foundation Ayesha Shirin Rahman also spoke on the occasion.

The Daily Sun/Bangladesh/ 17th July 2012

After the financial crisis, the investment banking mantra became “Shanghai, Mumbai, Dubai or goodbye.” While the rest of the world was falling apart, the countries stretching from Saudi Arabia to India, Southeast Asia and China were growing, and could pick up some slack. Or so the thinking went. But the swingeing decline in the Asian equities business -- the most expensive pillar of Wall Street's expansion -- suggests this was a fallacy. A retreat now looks inevitable.

Stockbrokers have flocked to Asia since 2008. Aside from the big Wall Street firms like Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan and European universal banks like Credit Suisse and UBS, a number of secondary players have bulked up, from US broker Jefferies, the UK's Barclays, Australia's Macquarie, Japan's Nomura, and China's ICBC.

It's easy to see what attracted them. Commissions for trading shares were higher in Asia than elsewhere, mainly due to the scarcity of efficient electronic trading platforms. Competition was still thin, particularly in equity derivatives and prime brokerage. Robust local savings rates and strong growth spurred hope for higher trading volumes and fund raisings alike.

Oops. The value of share trading in the Asia Pacific region fell 22 percent in the first half of 2012, outpacing declines not only in the Americas, but even in the basket case of Europe. Meantime, commissions have been squeezed, falling by as much as 30 percent alone in the past two years in some markets as new entrants have tried to rapidly build market share.

Sales of new shares -- usually a venture between equities and corporate finance departments -- have also taken a hit. Equity proceeds in Asia Pacific (ex-Australia) dropped by 31 percent so far this year to $11.3 billion, according to Thomson Reuters. That's double the rate of decline in the United States. Moreover, an increasing number of banks are scrounging at that shrinking pie. PICC's proposed $3 billion Hong Kong IPO later this year will have a whopping 17 underwriters.

Add it all up, and instead of being a profit engine, the pan-Asian equities business has become a drag. To offer a full complement of cash, derivatives and prime brokerage services across the region -- including share trading, research and compliance -- can cost some $800 million a year, according to one executive. Only one or two firms have revenue of that scale.

The pain is starting to show. Macquarie Group's income from Asia fell 35 percent in the year ended March, compared with a 19 percent gain in Europe and 8 percent decrease in the Americas. Jefferies highlighted the costs of its Asian expansion in its most recent quarterly report, when earnings fell 21 percent from the year before.

The retreat has already started. Samsung Securities shut operations in the region outside Korea a few months ago. Royal Bank of Scotland is selling most of its Asian equities division to Malaysia's CIMB Group. Credit Agricole is in talks to offload its stake in CLSA. Investors focused on troubles in Europe as global banks report their earnings this week may want to ask what plans they have for their Asian operations.

The Daily Star/Bangladesh/ 17th July 2012