Bangladesh Bank (BB) will start providing online information of its Credit Information Bureau (CIB) reports to banks and non-banking financial institutions (NBFIs) from July 19, which will make faster the lending services and will eventually cut the cost of doing business. BB Governor Dr Atiur Rahman will inaugurate the online service at the central bank’s headquarters in the capital city, bringing an end to the manual, time consuming and cumbersome process of sharing the important credit information among banks and financial institutions.
All the 47 banks and 29 NBFIs of the country will be able to collect the online CIB reports on July 19 and onwards. The banks and financial institutions would also be able to collect the CIB reports from the central bank physically if they want, the central bank officials said.
“This is a part of the continuous process of digitizing the central bank and the country’s banking sector to ensure efficient, faster and transparent services to the people,” Dr Rahman told BSS today. He said the online service will make the CIB reports only a click away, which now takes five to seven days.
The report, however, used to take at least three months before Dr Rahman was made the governor. The governor said the faster CIB reports would cut the cost of doing business when the banks, NBFIs and respective persons would get it without going to the persisting hassles and longer time-frame. “The Election Commission (EC) and other government organizations and agencies can also get necessary information to determine whether any particular person is a loan defaulter or not,” he said, observing that this convenient and accurate information would help combat credit related corruption.
Besides, Dr Rahman said the central bank would ensure better use of its manpower after introducing the online CIB reports as only five to seven staff can handle the entire system whereas few hundred people are now doing the jobs. The governor said the huge manpower, which is now busy in handling over 5,000 CIB reports every month, would be use their skill in other necessary services of the central bank.

News: The Independent/ Bangladesh/ July-12-2011

The central bank has moved to pursue banks to cut the interest rate for 270 sick garment companies to 8 percent from as high as 15 percent, an official said yesterday.

Of the 8 percent interest rate, 5 percent will be paid by owners and the rest will be subsidised by the government, said Jahangir Alam, an executive director of Bangladesh Bank.

Alam spoke to reporters after a meeting between BB Governor Atiur Rahman and leaders of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association at the central bank office in Dhaka.

“Owners of troubled garment companies will be able to get loans by paying a flat 8 percent interest rate,” Alam said. “It will help the companies recover from deep losses.”

Of the 270 companies, 88 owe money to private commercial banks and 182 to the public commercial banks.

Alam did not however mention the accumulated amount of outstanding loans by garment owners or subsidy to be paid by the government or how much the government has written off.

Urged by the garment exporters at the meeting, the governor agreed to increase the Export Development Fund (EDF) from the existing $400 million. The new EDF is yet to be disclosed.

The central bank will also reduce the export proceed time from an existing 120 days, so that the money comes into the country fast. Alam said a $2 billion export bill is yet to come to the country because of a long proceed time.

BB said it will also clarify the meanings of some words in the circulation of the second stimulus package, which has already been awarded to the ready-made garment exporters to offset fallout from the global recession.

Alam said the garment exporters are yet to get the funds from the second stimulus package for some ambiguous words in the circulation of the stimulus package. But the central bank agreed to clarify the meaning of those words, so they can easily get the money.

BGMEA President Shafiul Islam Mohiuddin said the garment owners cannot yet take loans from the central bank because of stern conditions, such as construction of dormitories for garment workers to resolve accommodation problems.

The government should take steps that the new entrepreneurs feel encouraged to invest in the garment sector, Mohiuddin said. He also demanded low-cost funds so that the factory owners construct effluent treatment plants.

News: Daily Star/ Bangladesh/ July-12011

BRAC Bank has introduced a local currency 'range-forward contract', the first in Bangladesh, to safeguard companies against fluctuation risks of the dollar-taka exchange rate.

The range forward is a fresh derivative which helps corporate houses, engaged in international trade, to save their money through staying in a price band.

The bank has recently signed a forward contract with Marico Bangladesh in Dhaka. The deal will enable Marico to cover foreign-exchange fluctuation risks with a price band, the bank said in a statement yesterday.

The first L/C opened under the contract was about $200,000.

“This innovative foreign exchange product will help corporate houses hedge their currency risk and safeguard themselves from foreign currency fluctuation risks,” said Syed Mahbubur Rahman, managing director of the bank.

“With this, the bank has covered a new area of foreign exchange derivatives previously absent in the market,” he added.

Rahmat Pasha, head of treasury of the bank, said, “It will be a milestone product for the market through which corporate houses will keep safe in the rainy days, when the currency market goes through upheavals.”

News: The Daily Star/ Bangladesh/ July-11-2011

Bangladesh Bank Governor Dr Atiur Rahman on Saturday asked all central bank branches across the country to set up ‘Help Desk’ for better service to the people. He also requested all commercial banks of the country irrespective of local and foreign to set up such ‘Help Desk’ in their branches.
The decision was taken at a meeting as the central bank chief has spent his holiday in the office from 11 am. He also held meeting with the officials of the ‘Help Desk’ of the central bank that would help their customers a lot to get better services. Dr Atiur told the meeting that the central bank should act more pro-people and expand its services further for the betterment of the people.
He also emphasized to increase the standard of the service of the central bank and asked the officials to change their mind set.
He said that mobile service should be included to expedite the service of the ‘help desk’.
The government said all banks to give new notes to the customers. He requested all people to lodge their complaints to the Bangladesh bank if they did not get new bank notes from now on.

News: The Independent/ Bangladesh/ July-10-2011

Rajshahi Krishi Unnayan Bank (RAKUB) has disbursed Taka 1010.42 crore as loan for boosting rural economy as well as create employment through enhancing agricultural and non-agricultural production everywhere in the country’s 16 northwest districts during the last 2010-11 fiscal. Side by side with the disbursement, the bank has also realized Taka 1190.91 crore including Taka 320.04 crore classified and other outstanding loans.
RAKUB Managing Director Pradip Kumar Dutta said the bank had set a target of disbursing Taka 1140 crore as crop loan and recovery of Taka 1090 crore including Taka 657.66 crore classified loan through 365 branches in the Rajshahi and Rangpur divisions.
To build a poverty-free Bangladesh, he said the bank has enhanced its lending activities in multipurpose potential fields for boosting agriculture production, intensifying food security and flourishing poultry and dairy sectors to reduce protein deficiency.
Pradip Dutta said Taka 444.59 crore for crops, Taka 18.26 crore for fisheries, Taka 56.64 crore for livestock, Taka 13.49 crore for farm and irrigation machinery, Taka 22.76 crore for small and medium enterprise, Taka 271.69 for trading, Taka 45.57 for agro-based industry and Taka 31.27 crore for poverty alleviation were also disbursed during the same period.
Besides, Taka 4.73 crore has been disbursed at two per cent subsidized interest rate for boosting the production of import alternative cash crops like pulse, spice and maize.
The bank has also been disbursing loan for establishing solar power, biogas and waste refinement plants on a priority basis for the greater interest of public health conservation and maintaining ecological balance together with addressing the power and gas deficiency through using the eco-friendly alternative fuel.
For the last couple of years, special credit is being disbursed among the share-croppers and marginal farmers at open places with the main thrust of enhancing credit-flow towards the potential crop production sector. Emphasis is being given to bringing all the landless, marginal and small share-croppers, who are unable for supportive deposit, under its credit facilities in phases.
Dutta said the landless farmers and share-croppers cultivate significant portion of the total farming field.
As the largest development partner in agriculture as well as agro-based industry sector of the northwest region, currently the bank has adopted multipurpose development programs, which are being implemented at the grassroots to make the credit programs easier. “We are giving highest emphasis on enhancing credit flow towards exploring the potential sectors of the region,” Pradip Datta said adding that the level best efforts are on to ensure transparency and accountability in all the banking activities.
Side by side with implementing various credit programmes, he said, the bank has been arranging different kinds of grassroots level motivation programs including farmers training aimed at enhancing consciousness among the rural farmers and the masses regarding procurement of agricultural loan along with repaying those on due time.
Importance has been given to increasing relations between the bankers and the customers especially the rural farmers for boosting farm production, he added.
As the largest development partner in the agricultural sector of the northwest Bangladesh, the amount of bank’s credit balance and deposit has been cumulated to Taka 3530.11 crore and Taka 1939.12 crore respectively at present.

News: The Independent/ Bangladesh/ July-10-2011