Sayeed H Chowdhury has recently been re-elected as the chairman of One Bank for another one-year term.

The bank's Board of Directors has also re-elected Asoke Das Gupta as its vice chairman and Zahur Ullah as the chairman of the executive committee. Chowdhury is the founder chairman and CEO of blue chip conglomerate HRC and a member of the British Institute of Management, the bank said in a statement yesterday.

He is also the chairman of Media New Age Ltd and Information Services Network Ltd.

He is also the honorary adviser of Bangladesh Ocean Going Ship owners' Association, according to the statement.

The government has confirmed its remaining shares in Lloyds Banking Group have been sold, eight years after pumping in £20bn to save it.

Lloyds Bank said the government will see a return of £21.2bn on its investment.

At the height of the financial crisis taxpayers owned 43% of Lloyds.

Its return to the private sector is in stark contrast with the other bailed-out bank - Royal Bank of Scotland - that is still 73% owned by taxpayers.

The government has been slowly selling down its stake in Lloyds for the past five years.

Ministers have claimed that all the public money used to buy Lloyds shares has been returned.

However, the true cost is disputed, with some critics claiming the lost interest has not been taken into account.

Others have argued that the heavy losses previously suffered by Lloyds also hit the government's stake.

Either way, the £20.3bn of public funds used to buy the shares had already been recouped due to dividend payments made to all shareholders.

At last week's annual meeting, Lloyds chief executive António Horta Osório told shareholders he expected the government to make at least £500m from the bailout.

But on Wednesday morning he said the true figure was closer to £900m and called Lloyds one of the "strongest banks" in the world.

He also said the government had received more money than was originally invested.

"The fact that the government decided to use taxpayers' money, which is a last resort, to put £20.3bn in Lloyds at the time is evidence that the bank was in a very difficult situation," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

"When I arrived six years ago the bank was in a very difficult financial situation and not focused on its customers in the UK."

The shares have been sold off by Morgan Stanley at below the 73.5p average price paid in the three-stage bailout.

But taking the dividend payments into account means the total £20bn outlay has already been repaid.

Social Islami Bank Additional Managing Director Ehsanul Aziz, Bangladesh Pratidin Editor Naem Nizam and Editor-in-Chief of Banglanews24.com Alamgir Hossain inaugurate a new ATM booth of SIBL on East West Media Group Limited (EWMGL) premises in the capital on Wednesday.

Social Islami Bank Limited (SIBL) opened a new ATM booth at East West Media Group Limited (EWMGL) premises in the capital on Wednesday.

It is the third booth of this bank in the Bashundhara residential area.

The booth aims at facilitating the journalists and officials of the media outlets of EWMGL to withdraw money using ATM cards at their convenience.  The daily Bangladesh Pratidin, Kaler Kantho, daily sun, Banglanews24.com, Radio Metro and TV channel News24 are the media outlets of EWMGL, which is a concern of country’s largest business conglomerate Bashundhara Group. Another object of establishing the booth is to make sure the bank’s service reaching peoples’ doorstep.

 Ehsanul Aziz, Additional Managing Director of SIBL, inaugurated the booth on Wednesday afternoon.

Speaking on the occasion, he said the officials of EWMGL will benefit from the booth.

The residents and other people of the adjoining area will also be able to withdraw money.

Bangladesh Pratidin Editor Naem Nizam, editor-in-chief of Banglanews24.com Alamgir Hossain, Kaler Kantho executive editor Mostafa Kamal, Bangladesh Pratidin commercial adviser Khandker Kamrul Haque Shamim were present.

Besides, Md Jahir Uddin, first assistant vice-president and operation manager of SIBL, Wahidul Islam Chowdhury, senior assistant vice-president and manager of SIBL Bashundhara branch, Berait Union Parishad chairman Jahangir Alam, and Md Nurul Huda Milu Chowdhury, columnist and chairman of Human Rights Monitoring Council and ex-general manager of Meghna Petroleum Limited attended the event.

RAJSHAHI: Rajshahi Krishi Unnayan Bank (RAKUB) has realized around Taka 2.98 crore outstanding loan including 9.87 lakh classified ones from 460 clients through arranging a loan- recovery grand camp in the district on Tuesday.

Monchmoil Bazar Branch of the bank organized the daylong camp on its premises largely attended by clients, onlookers and others concerned.

Chairman of bank governing body Nazrul Islam and its director Professor Rustam Ali Ahmed addressed the programme as the chief and special guest respectively with Rafiqul Alam Chowdhury, General Manager of Rajshahi division, RAKUB, in the chair, reports BSS

Zonal Manager Rafiqul Islam, Upazila Chairman Jakirul Islam and Branch Manager Hamidur Rahman also spoke.

RAKUB sources said a massive response from the clients was seen in the event and they paid their dues spontaneously.

In his remarks, Chairman Nazrul Islam said RAKUB is committed to reach its services at doorsteps of the farmers in general for improving their living and livelihood conditions.

Steps have been taken to make its all 379 branches computerized by the end of this fiscal year to materialize the government target to build digital Bangladesh.

It is bringing all the existing agricultural potential sectors and sub- sectors under qualitative and quantitative investments for making the region's agro-based economy more vibrant.

RAKUB, headquartered in Rajshahi, has been operating its banking activities as the largest development partner in all 16 northwestern districts of Rajshahi and Rangpur divisions targeting its agricultural sector and all its sub-sectors.

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3. GDP growth figure authentic: Planning Minister

GDP growth figure authentic: Planning Minister

Sun Online Desk     18th May, 2017 02:21:16

Criticising the World Bank, Planning Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal on Wednesday said the government’s gross domestic product (GDP) figures, provided by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, was in no way ‘manufactured’.

The minister came up the remarks while speaking as chief guest at a roundtable discussion on the country’s infrastructure, jointly organised by Dhaka Chamber of Commerce & Industry (DCCI) and BIDA and World Bank Group, at the Pan Pacific Sonargaon Hotel.

Mustafa Kamal said the BBS projection of 7.24 percent GDP growth for the outgoing 2016-17 fiscal is correct. 

“End of the day I’m winner. Because I know my number, I know myself, and I strongly believe my department, my minister.

So there is no manufacturing of the figures. No tampering, no arranging, nothing like that at all,” Mostafa Kamal asserted.

He also said those who say that the 7.24 percent growth figure is not correct do not know the right information behind the figure.

World Bank Bangladesh office lead economist Zahid Hussain, on May 14, said “the growth will be sustained at 6.8 percent in FY2017. Bangladesh economy is performing well in all indicators except three -- export, remittance and import of industrial raw materials --compared to the previous fiscal.”

President of DCCI Abul Kasem Khan delivered the welcome address at the round-table discussion.

Experts and specialists, investors, regulators, policy planners, economists, bankers and development partners, among others, discussed the session.