Abu Haniff Khan, additional managing director of Premier Bank Limited, and Gousul Alam Shaon, managing director of Grey Advertising, sign an agreement recently.

Premier Bank has appo-inted Grey Advertising Bangladesh Ltd to promote its brand.

A deal was signed in this regard recently, said a press release.

Abu Haniff Khan, additional managing director of Premier Bank and Gousul Alam Shaon, managing director of Grey Advertising, signed the agreement on behalf of their respective organisations.

The Bank is stepping into its 13th year and moving forward with its vision: ‘to be the best amongst the top financial institutions’, the news release said.

Moin Iqbal, director and chairman of board audit committee, Abdus Salam Murshedy, Kazi Abdul Mazid, Imran Iqbal, directors, Ihsanul Aziz, managing director (CC) and other senior officials of the Bank and Grey Advertising were also present on the occasion.

The Daily Sun/Bangladesh/ 23th Jan 2012

In a fresh move to discourage lavish house financing and import of luxury goods, Bangla-desh Bank on Sunday issued new loan guidelines for all commercial banks and financial institutions.

Banking Rules and Policy Department (BRPD) of the central bank issued a circular in this regard and asked the top executives of all banks and financial institutions to follow the guidelines.

“The new guidelines under the consumer financing has already been sent to the banks and financial institutions,” said BB General Manager AFM Asaduzzaman on Sunday.

The Daily Sun/Bangladesh/ 23th Jan 2012

Bangladesh Bank has directed the scheduled banks and financial institutes to follow the credit margin of ratio of 70:30 for all housing loans under the consumer financing service.

The Banking Rules and Policy Department (BRPD) of the central bank made the directive yesterday through a circular.

The circular also mentioned that the credit margin ration of all other consumer financing including car loan would be of 30:70.

The directives will come into effect soon.

The Daily Sun/Bangladesh/ 23th Jan 2012

The opportunity for opening letter of credits (LCs) for the businessmen of both Bangladesh and Myanmar has ushered in a new chapter in strengthening of trade relations between the two neighbouring countries, experts said.

Although businesses had been taking place between the two countries since long through General Trade Agreement and Border Trade Agreement, signed in 1973 and 1994 respectively, traders had to face severe troubles as there was no scope of opening LCs.

The hurdle has been removed after a long effort through an initiative of Sonali Bank.

While talking to the daily sun, Md Humayun Kabir, managing director of Sonali Bank, said it was a great success of Sonali Bank for being able to remove the long-standing hurdle that will act as the opening of the doors of new possibilities for a stronger trade ties between the two nations.

He also hoped that through this initiative, new avenues of opportunities would be opened for the traders and more banks would be able to go for providing the same facility.

The border trade agreement between Bangladesh and Myanmar was signed on May 18, 1994 and to run banking activities under the deal, another agreement was signed between Sonali Bank and Myanmar Investment and Commercial Bank on May 7 in 1995.

A total of 16,698 import drafts worth $ 115,045,780 and 1648 export drafts of $ 9,064,131 were issued between the two countries during September 1995-2011 to September 2011 period.

Banking sources said such huge volume of trade activities is not possible through bank draft only.

Businessmen of both countries have already started export-import activities through LCs.

Bangladeshi traders have been advised to open LCs at Sonali Bank’s Dilkusha Corporate Branch in Dhaka, Agabad Corporate Barnch in Chittagong and Khulna Corporate Branch in Khulna.

The Myanmar Investment and Commercial Bank has already opened two LCs for importing medicine from Bangladesh.

The Daily Sun/Bangladesh/ 23th Jan 2012

Three state-run commercial banks opened letters of credit worth US$336 million for Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation for importing fuel oils as of January 22 this year, officials said yesterday.

A senior official of the central bank also said no banks have expressed unwillingness to open LCs for BPC, contradicting media reports.

Sonali Bank opened LCs worth $147 million for importing diesel, Janata Bank $113 million for crude, jet and furnace oil and Agrani Bank $76 million for diesel in the first three weeks of 2012.

The development will help the BPC breathe a sigh of relief as the state-run lone petroleum products importer has been desperately searching for funds to feed the country's appetite for fuel.

The official said Bangladesh Bank initiated the move to help cash-strapped BPC receive costlier American greenback to import petroleum products.

The central bank also assured the banks that they will be provided with required local currency in case of any liquidity crunch, he added.

This comes amid reports that the three state-run banks are refusing to open L/Cs for BPC as they face a serious dearth of liquidity both in dollars and taka.

The Daily Star/Bangladesh/ 23th Jan 2012