Bangladesh Bank will provide Tk 81.76 million loan to NCC Bank Limited for financing a Central Water Treatment Plant at Comilla EPZ.

NCC Bank signed a facility access agreement with Investment Promotion and Financing Facility (IPFF) Project Cell of Bangladesh Bank for availing IPFF fund under IDA Credit of World Bank on Thursday.

Dr. Atiur Rahman, Governor of Bangladesh Bank attended the signing ceremony as chief guest.

Mohammed Nurul Amin, Managing Director of NCC Bank and Md. Abul Quasem, Deputy Governor of Bangladesh Bank and Project Director of IPFF Project Cell signed the agreement on behalf of their respective organisations.

Bangladesh Bank Governor Atiur Rahman yesterday asked banks and financial institutions to finance environment-friendly industrial infrastructure.
He said the Investment Promotion and Financing Facility (IPFF) Cell of the central bank, backed by the World Bank (WB), has been providing financial and technical assistances to infrastructural projects in the private sector.
The banks and financial institutions should play a major role in the proper disbursement of funds among entrepreneurs, he said. The governor spoke at a function marking the signing of an agreement to help Sigma Engineers with Tk 8.17 crore to build a central effluent treatment plant (CETP) at Comilla EPZ.
If CETPs are gradually set up at all the EPZs in the country, IPFF will also be able to finance them, he said.
IPFF has already completed first phase of its operation by disbursing 100 percent of its credit line to seven small power plants through different banks and financial institutions contributing 178MW of electricity to the national grid, according to the BB website.

News:The Daily Star/08-Feb-2014

Bangladesh bank (BB) has set the target for disbursement of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) loan at Tk 887.53 billion for the year 2014. The amount is 19.63 per cent higher than the last year’s target of Tk 741.87 billion. According to sources, the scheduled banks and financial institutions disbursed a total of Tk 853.23 billion in last year (2013) among 0.744 million SME entrepreneurs across the country.  The SME loan disbursed in 2013 was also16 per cent higher than the target set for the year. Out of the total disbursements, women entrepreneurs received Tk 33.46 billion under the SME financing. Of the amount Tk 654.72 billion crore was distributed in urban area while Tk 198.50 billion in rural area. The authorities could achieve their target in disbursement of SME loans because of due policy supports from the central bank like rescheduling facilities and low interest rates, said SME Programme Department general manager Masum Patwary.
“BB always encourages commercial banks and the financial institutions to supply adequate loan to SME entrepreneurs to promote the Small and Medium  scale industries,” said the general manager. BB  is  planning to implement some effective initiatives for further expansion of SMEs across the country such as start up financing, credit guarantee scheme, venture capital financing, SME deposit product, cluster mapping, SME product marketing and web based marketing, non financial services and  incubation centre.
In Bangladesh, 90 per cent private sector enterprises are SMEs. Around 25 per cent of the country’s total labour force are working in the SME sector and contributes about 40per cent of gross manufacturing output, the general manager also added.
Banks in Bangladesh are being supported in SME financing initiatives at subsidised interest rate with refinance facilities from Bangladesh Bank, which is being funded by the central bank, government of Bangladesh and development partners like IDA, ADB and JICA.
The SME loan disbursement has increased in recent days as the central bank is continuously encouraging new entrepreneurs to take SME loans from banks and financial institutions, said M Mafuzur Rahman, executive director of the central bank.
“The development of SMEs can reduce economic disparity from society and help the country to create more employment opportunity. So we need to expand SME loan allocation across the country for the betterment of the economy,” also said the executive director.

News:Daily Sun/08-Feb-2014

 Business Initiative Leading Development (BUILD) and Bangladesh Bank (BB) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) at the 3rd meeting of Financial Sector Development Working Committee (FSDWC) meeting of BUILD recently.

Md. Abul Quasem, Deputy Governor–1 of Bangladesh Bank, and Asif Ibrahim, Chairman of Board of Trustees and Anis A. Khan, Vice President, Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI) and Member of Board of Trustees of BUILD signed the MoU.

Bangladesh Bank has prepared data about letters of credit of five banks to help an anti-draft body investigation into suspected money laundering cases in the name of imports.

Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) launched the enquiry in October last year and sought the data of a 10-month period from July 2012.

The anti-draft body began the probe as there was an “abnormal increase” of capital machinery imports when the country was experiencing dull investment situation due to a long-lasting political turmoil.

Bangladesh Bank sent a letter to the ACC on Tuesday citing that the data is ready and can be collected in hard version.

The banks include state-owned Agrani, Janata and Rupali, private commercial Islami Bank and foreign HSBC.

The central bank prepared data of five banks in the July-April period last fiscal year.

Bangladesh Bank sources said the LC opening for capital machinery imports increased 31.6% in 10 months from one year ago although the period was identified as politically instable and sluggish for investment sector.

In November last year, the committee asked the central bank for the data.

According to the data, LCs to import capital machinery increased to $2.36bn during the period compared to $1.72bn one year earlier.

In the period, textile machinery imports showed a substantial increase by 14% to $373m, garment machinery 34% to $366.65m and power sector machinery 301% to $696m.

Although the ACC asked for 10 months data, Bangladesh Bank found the December data of 2013 of two banks also fishy when the capital machinery imports witnessed 300% rise.

The banks are Janata Bank and Dhaka Bank.

Of the December data, the central bank found $230m LCs of Janata Bank and $18m of Dhaka Bank suspicious, which were opened for capital machinery imports for energy sector.

Bangladesh Bank asked the two banks to provide information to investigate into if there is any case of money laundering in the name of imports.

The central bank executives said the rise of capital machinery imports was not normal as the entrepreneurs had remained shy of making any fresh investment during political instability centering January 5 elections.

According to them, ill attempts were being made through over-invoicing.

They said although the imported machineries were second hand and cheap, they were shown new and expensive in the invoices.

News:Dhaka Tribune/30-Jan-2014