From left, Sandeep Bose, head of consumer banking for Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka of Standard Chartered Bank; Christopher Dalo, global head of sales management and customer offerings (SME banking); Rajeev Chalisgaonkar, GM (SME banking) for South Asia, and Hassan O Rashid, GM (SME banking) for Bangladesh, cut a cake to re-launch the Bank's SME banking in Bangladesh at a press meet at Sonargaon Hotel yesterday.

Standard Chartered Bank plans to disburse Tk 957 crore in 2012 for the fast growing small and medium enterprises in Bangladesh, said a top official of the Bank yesterday.

The bank disbursed around Tk 1,000 crore in the SME segment in the last two years, said Hassan O Rashid, general manager for SME banking of Standard Chartered Bank, Bangladesh.

He spoke at the re-launch of the Bank's SME banking service in the country at a press briefing at Sonargaon Hotel in the city.

The London-based Bank has redesigned its SME products in line with the changing needs of the customers in Bangladesh, Rashid said.

“This latest strategy is underpinned by its investments in infrastructure, people and solutions,” Rashid said. “SMEs can now access comprehensive and tailored solutions that traditionally have been limited to multinational companies and large corporations.”

He said an SME customer will get tailor-made services under the new product proposition.

“We will deliver holistic solutions in cash management, trade finance, lending, foreign exchange hedging and investments,” said Rashid.

SME customers in Bangladesh now have a dedicated contact centre to access their accounts round-the-clock and interactive online banking platform, Straight2Bank.

“Our financial solution coupled with growing expertise in this segment is helping us to position the Bank as one of the leading financiers of SMEs in Bangladesh,” Rashid said.

Rashid said a customer can borrow upto Tk 1 crore in SME categories with providing small collateral worth Tk 30 lakh.

To get SME loans, business enterprises should fulfil a number of criteria, including three years of business experience, trade licence and relations with the Bank, he said.

Rashid said the Bank offers SME loans in different sectors, including manufacturing, trading and service, with an interest rate ranging from 15.5 percent to 19 percent.

At the programme, Sandeep Bose, head of consumer banking of the Bank's operations in Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka, said they do not see any uneven competition with the approval of new private banks in the country.

“Banking penetration rate is still very low in the country, which is less than 8 percent of the total population, he said. “So, there are a lot of opportunities in banking business in the country.”

Bose said the market will determine the nature of competition automatically.

On high interest rates, he said a Bank fixes an interest rate by considering a number of factors such as customer risk, deposit rate and inflation rate.

He said the Bank's 19 percent lending rate is reasonable as other banks in the country collect deposits at a rate of 12.5 percent.

Christopher Dalo, StanChart's global head of sales management and customer offerings (SME banking), and Rajeev Chalisgaonkar, general manager (SME banking) for South Asia, also spoke.

The Daily Star/Bangladesh/ 12th April 2012