Bangladesh Bank (BB) will announce the monetary policy today (Wednesday) for setting its half-yearly strategy for controlling the cost and supply of money and credit.

Governor of Bangladesh Bank, Dr Atiur Rahman will announce the monetary policy for the first half of the current 2011-12 fiscal year at his office at 2:30 pm, presumably keeping inflation and credit flow on the forecourt of the prime agenda of the central bank, said a BB press release.

Speculations are there that the policy would tighten further the credit flow to non-productive sector while it would ease further the lending to imports of essential commodities to help contain food price inflation.

News: Daily Sun/ Bangladesh/ 27-Jul-2011

Sandeep Bahl, managing director, Head of Financial Market Sales (South Asia) of Standard Chartered Bank (SCB) arrived in Dhaka yesterday.

He is scheduled to meet senior officials of the bank, key clients and regulators, said a press release.

Sandeep Bahl has more than 18 years of banking experience, out of which 15 years he has spent in Financial Markets. Sandeep has worked in various countries including the United Kingdom, India, Africa and Malaysia in businesses including sales, structuring and research.

Prior to his current role, Sandeep was the Managing Director, Head of Global Markets Malaysia and managed a business spread over 14 countries. Sandeep has a MBA degree from Delhi University, India and also holds a Master in Finance from London Business School. He is accompanied by Samiran Chakraborty, regional head of Research, India and Biswajeet Sengupta (Head of Sales, East and Bangladesh).

News: Daily Sun/ Bangladesh/ 27-Jul-2011

The 34th annual general meeting of IFIC Bank, a private sector commercial bank of the country, was held at the Bashundhara Convention Centre, in the city, recently.

Renowned industrialist and chairman of the IFIC Bank, Salman F Rahman was presided over the AGM while other directors of the bank were present on the occasion, said a press release.

In his inaugural speech, Salman F Rahman expressed satisfaction over the overall achievements of the bank and expected that the bank in future will become number one bank in the country.

News: Daily Sun/ Bangladesh/ 27-Jul-2011

The finance minister yesterday backed the government's decision to give licences to new private banks, saying more banks will intensify competition in the industry which is yet to reach all the unbanked.

“We've sought comments from the Bangladesh Bank as the government wants to issue new licences for banks,” AMA Muhith told a discussion on 'budget implementation and challenges' organised by the Economic Reporters' Forum (ERF) at the National Press Club in Dhaka.

Muhith said banks made hefty profits and new banks would create competition, which is good for the industry. He, however, declined to say when and how many new banks will be allowed.

The finance minister also talked about a wide variety of issues, such as balance of payments, exchange rate, capital market, revenue target, development budget, inflation and austerity measures, with the ERF members. But the issue of new bank licences was in the limelight.

Bangladesh's banking system is a web of various kinds of bank groups such as state-owned commercial banks, private commercial banks, state-owned specialised banks and foreign banks. Presently, there are 48 banks. There are also 29 non-bank finance companies regulated by the BB.

When experts and regulator think it is a saturated market, the finance minister said the banking services are yet to reach the mass.

He said the banking industry has been making impressive business for years. Still vast segments of the population, especially the underprivileged sections of the society, have no access to formal banking services, the minister added.

“How many bank branches we have and how many areas our banks have covered so far,” questioned the minister during the debate on providing licences for new banks.

The minister said banking supervision and inspection and money management have become vital in today's world and the BB has to concentrate more on these areas.

He said the central bank did not adequately supervise the banking industry; otherwise the loan-deposit ratio could not exceed 85 percent.

“Some banks have invested far more than the limit. Some of the banks' loan-deposit ratio shot up to even 110 percent,” said Muhith.

On the balance of payments situation, the minister said rapid import growth has created a pressure and if the trend continues, the situation would worsen further.

“We've been able to reduce the pressure by managing the exchange rate,” he said.

He said the Securities and Exchange Commission has formulated a draft of guidelines to offload new shares, including those in the state-owned companies.

The reintroduction of book building system would take more time, but the SEC would not sit idle. “New shares will be offloaded in a fixed price method,” he added.

The minister also warned the bureaucrats who oppose offloading shares of existing listed companies.

About inflation, Muhith said it is becoming a matter of concern and the government is trying to support the poor with subsidies.

“The government is aware of the pressure on expenditure. We're working on different austerity measures,” the minister said.

News: The Daily Star/ Bangladesh/ 25-Jul-2011

Agrani Bank, which has antique gold coins worth over Tk. 100 crore in unclaimed lockers, is not keen on handing over the assets to the central bank, sources said.
In a recent letter, Bangladesh Bank (BB) has asked all state-owned commercial banks, including Agrani Bank, to hand over gold coins and other valuable assets lying in unclaimed lockers for more than 10 years to the central bank as those are considered the property of the state as per the Bank Company Act, 1991. The BB has asked state-owned commercial banks to hand over those valuable assets by July 31. But Agrani Bank said it has not received huge amount of rents during the period from its clients for preserving the lockers. “Agrani Bank has due rights to get the outstanding rents for protection of property. If the property is being handed over to BB, the bank would not be able to recover unpaid rents,” said an official of the Agrani Bank, seeking anonymity.
He said the sum of unpaid rent for those unclaimed lockers already crossed Tk. 2 crore.
He said, during the latest assessment in 2009 by professional gold traders, the bank management found value of gold coins and other valuables of the unclaimed lockers worth Tk. 10 crore. “But, the antique value of these gold coins is not less than Tk. 100 crore, according to gold traders,” he said.
According to him, the management of Agrani Bank has discussed the issue and analysed legal jurisdiction regarding the valuables. Now, they want to discuss this issue again in the next board meeting as the bank’s managing director preferred it.
Meanwhile, the central bank officials said Agrani Bank is spending time to increase the the amount of rent for preservation of the lockers to grab the property.
“Not only Agrani Bank, other state-owned banks also didn't pay heed to previous letters regarding handing over of unclaimed lockers’ valuables,” he said.
He added that many gold coins and jewellery found in unclaimed lockers at the Agrani Bank are more than 100 years old.

News: The Independent/ Bangladesh/ 25-Jul-2011