A Rouf Chowdhury, chairman of Bank Asia, inaugurates the Bank's 68th branch on Elephant Road in Dhaka yesterday. Mohd Safwan Choudhury, vice chairman, was also present.

The Daily Star/Bangladesh/ 16th July 2012

Deutsche Bank may escape with a lighter penalty than other banks in Europe if investigators impose fines in the wake of an interest rate-rigging scandal, two sources familiar with the bank told Reuters on Sunday.

They said Deutsche Bank has applied to cooperate with authorities in their investigation under the leniency programmes of the European Union and in Switzerland, but that it did not mean the bank was admitting any guilt.

"The bank last year obtained the status of being a witness for the prosecution in the EU and in Switzerland," one source said.

"As a result of that, the bank could get a lighter penalty if a punishment is imposed," another said.

Deutsche Bank's application under the leniency programme has been approved.

A global investigation into manipulation of interbank lending rates widened two weeks ago with Britain's fraud squad taking up the case.

The Daily Star/Bangladesh/ 16th July 2012

Mohammed Saiful Alam, Chairman, Board of Directors of First Security Islami Bank, speaks at the 13th AGM of the Bank at Hotel Agrabad in Chittagong.

First Security Islami Bank Limited declared 10 percent stock dividend for its shareholders for the year 2011.

The announcement came at the 13th annual general meeting of the company held at Hotel Agrabad in Chittagong Friday, said a press release.

Mohammed Saiful Alam, Chairman, Board of Directors of First Security Islami Bank Limited presided over the meeting.

Alhaj Mohammed Abdul Maleque, Vice Chairman, Board of Directors of First Security Islami Bank Limited, Sheikh (Moulana) Mohammad Qutubuddin, Chairman of Shariah Council, AA M Zakaria, Managing Director, Md. Abdul Quddus and Syed Waseque Md. Ali, Deputy Managing Director(s) of First Security Islami Bank Limited, Hannan Khan, Company Secretary were present.

The Daily Sun/Bangladesh/ 15th July 2012

Md. Nurun Newaz Salim, Chairman of the Bank, seen at the half yearly branch managers’ conference of the Bank in Cox’s Bazar.

NCC Bank Limited organized a 3-day long half yearly branch managers’ conference at Cox’s Bazar Friday.

Md. Nurun Newaz salim, Chairman of the Bank inaugurated the conference as chief guest while Managing Director and CEO Mohammed Nurul Amin presided over, said a press release.

Tofazzal Hossain, former Chairman of the bank, Khairul Alam Chaklader and Ainul Kabir, directors were present. Golam Hafiz Ahmed, Additional Managing Director of the Bank, consultant AK Md. Siddique, Deputy Managing Directors Swapan Kumar Das, Mohabbat Khan, TM Faruque Chowdhury, Akhtar Hamid Khan, executives and branch managers attended the conference.

The Daily Sun/Bangladesh/ 15th July 2012

NEW YORK: Visa Inc, MasterCard Inc and banks that issue their credit cards have agreed to a $7.25 billion settlement with U.S. retailers in a lawsuit over the fixing of credit and debit card fees in what could be the largest antitrust settlement in U.S. history.

The settlement, if approved by a judge, would resolve dozens of lawsuits filed by retailers in 2005. The card companies and banks would also allow stores to start charging customers extra for using certain credit cards in an effort to steer them toward cheaper forms of payment.

The settlement papers were filed on Friday in Brooklyn federal court.

Swipe fees - charges to cover processing credit and debit payments - are set by the card companies and deducted from the transaction by the banks that issue the cards, essentially passing on the cost to merchants, the lawsuits said.

The proposed settlement involves a payment to a class of stores of $6 billion from Visa, MasterCard and more than a dozen of the country’s largest banks who issue the companies’ cards. The card companies have also agreed to reduce swipe fees by the equivalent of 10 basis points for eight months for a total consideration to stores valued at about $1.2 billion, according to lawyers for the plaintiffs.

The deal calls for merchants to be allowed to negotiate collectively over the swipe fees, also known as interchange fees.

Merchants would also be required to disclose information about card fees to customers, and credit card surcharges would be subject to a cap, according to the settlement papers. Surcharge rules would not affect the 10 states that currently prohibit that practice, which include California, New York and Texas.

An additional $525 million will be paid to stores suing individually, according to the documents.

“This is an historic settlement,” said Bonny Sweeney, a lawyer for the plaintiffs. The settlement “will help shift the competitive balance from one formerly dominated by the banks which controlled the card networks to the side of merchants and consumers,” said Craig Wildfang, who also represented the plaintiffs.

Noah Hanft, general counsel for MasterCard, said the company believed its interests were “best served by an amicable resolution” of the case. Visa Chief Executive Officer Joseph Saunders said the settlement was in the best interest of all parties and did not expect the settlement to impact its current guidance.

Not everyone was pleased with the proposed settlement, however. One class plaintiff, the National Association of Convenience Stores, rejected the settlement in a statement on Friday from its president, Tom Robinson, who is also president of Robinson Oil Corp.

“Not only does the proposed settlement fail to introduce competition and transparency, it actually provides Visa and MasterCard with the tools to continue to shield swipe fees from market forces,” Robinson said.

The proposed considerations are a far cry from the $50 billion in swipe-fees paid each year by U.S. retailers, he said.

The American Bankers Association, a trade group whose members include the bank defendants, said retailers, not consumers, stood to gain the most from the proposed settlement.

“Big-box retailers will likely seize this opportunity to ask Congress for even more handouts,” said ABA President Frank Keating in a statement, referring to the Durbin amendment passed by Congress in 2010 limiting debit-card swipe fees - a move that banks say resulted in an $8 billion windfall for retailers.

The Daily Sun/Bangladesh/ 15th July 2012