Mercantile Bank Limited (MBL) opened its 71st branch at Ashuganj in Brahmanbaria district.

Chairman of the Bank Md Abdul Jalil MP formally inaugurated the branch, said a press release.

Members of parliament Ziaul Haque Mrida and RAM Obaidul Mutadir Chowdhury were also present at the inaugural function as special guests.

Vice Chairman of the Bank Md Selim, Chairman of the Executive Committee MS Ahsan, Chairman of Audit Committee Al-Haj Akram Hussain, directors Engr Md Monsuruzzaman, M Amanullah MP and Al-Haj Mosharref Hossain, Managing Director AKM Shahidul Haque, Deputy Managing Director Md Abdul Jalil Chowdhury also attended.

The Daily Sun/Bangladesh/ 21th Dec 2011

Muhammad Yasin Ali, deputy managing director of Prime Bank Ltd, is seen speaking at the inaugural function of a workshop in Khulna recently. Md Rabiul Islam, acting general manager of Khulna office of Bangladesh Bank, is also seen.

Prime Bank Ltd recently organised a workshop on 'Prevention of Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing', at a hotel in Khulna.

Muhammad Yasin Ali, deputy managing director of the Bank inaugurated the workshop as the chief guest while Md Rabiul Islam, acting general manager of Khulna office of Bangladesh Bank was present as special guest, said a press release.

Sk Anisuzzaman, senior vice president of the Bank's Khulna branch presided over the workshop. Md Aminul Islam, chief money laundering prevention and compliance officer of the Bank was also present.

The Daily Sun/Bangladesh/ 21th Dec 2011

Bangladesh Bank Governor Dr. Atiur Rahman said the world economy is showing indications of another slowdown due to European debt crisis.

Severe credit crunch from the earlier slowdown still hinders small businesses and the new crisis is in a matured stage in the developed economies like US and UK, he said adding without appropriate policy interventions, their difficulties will be prolonged and worsened further.

Governor said this while addressing the inaugural session of Saarc-Finance seminar on Role of Central Banks in Financial Inclusion as chief guest, organised by Bangladesh Bank at a city hotel yesterday.

Eminent economist and chairman of Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD), Professor Dr. Rehman Sobhan attended the seminar as panel discussant.

Senior economic adviser to the governor of Bangladesh Bank, Dr. Hasan Zaman presented the keynote paper at the seminar while senior Bangladesh Bank officials and participants from Saarc countries attended the seminar.

Dr. Rehman Sobhan said more than 15 percent people are still remaining out of mainstream economic activities who have to be included in order to ensure overall economic development.

He said the banks only provide credit facilities to the people who have political and social influences, mainly the poor and deserving people remains deprived, which is unfair and injustice to the common people.

Ensuring development is not possible by keeping a large segment of population out of banking touch, he said adding those people should have to be involved with the economic activities by forming a joint fund through a collective effort.

The marginal people get credit facilities from the small credit lending organisations but they do not get it from institutional financial organisations, he said suggesting the banks to increase coordination with small credit organisations.

Dr Atiur said, BB’s financial inclusion drive has substituted direct lending by corporate social responsibility (CSR) driven financing.

With the guidance of the central bank, all banks are enthusiastically taking up multifaceted initiatives to widen and deepen their financial inclusion, he said. These include extending branch and ATM networks into rural areas, mass scale opening of bank accounts with nominal deposits for poorer people (more than nine million such new accounts opened by now), adopting new cost saving remote delivery modes for financial services like mobile phone/smart card based banking, financing schemes for renewable energy generation projects and so forth, Atiur added.

The Daily Sun/Bangladesh/ 21th Dec 2011

Bank Asia Chairman A Rouf Chowdhury cuts a cake at a programme to celebrate the Bank's 12th anniversary at Khulna Club in Khulna recently. Directors Rumee A Hossain, AM Nurul Islam and M Irfan Syed and President and Managing Director Md Mehmood Husain were also present.

The Daily Star/ Bangladesh/ 21th Dec 2011

Citibank, NA, Bangladesh has recently appointed Emeka Okonkwo as its global banking head, the bank said in a statement yesterday.

Okonkwo will be responsible for global banking related all corporate, financial institution and global subsidiaries group client relationships in the country.

Prior to the appointment, Okonkwo was Citibank Nigeria's global commercial banking head where he was responsible for all credit and marketing activities throughout Citi's commercial banking businesses in Nigeria.

Okonkwo has a Bachelor's degree in civil engineering from University of Nigeria. He is also a Master of Science in construction management from the University of Lagos, the statement added.

The Daily Star/ Bangladesh/ 21th Dec 2011