Global Head of Capital Markets for Standard Chartered Bank, Philip Cracknell to arrive in Dhaka for a day’s official visit Wedesday.
He will be meeting senior officials of the bank during his visit, an official release said.

News: The Independent/ Bangladesh/ July-06-2011

Dhaka Bank Limited recently celebrated its 16th funding anniversary in the city.

To mark the day, the bank has arranged various programmes including blood donation programme, Doa Mehfil on Tuesday, said a press release.

Dhaka Bank Chairman Reshadur Rahman, as chief guest, inaugurated the functions while Managing Director Khondker Fazle Rashid attended as special guest.

News: Daily Sun/ Bangladesh/ July-06-2011

AB Bank Limited has opened its 84th branch at Dewanhat in Chittagong to provide enhanced banking services to its customers in the area.

Kaiser A Chowdhury, president and managing director of the bank, formally inaugurated the branch during a function yesterday, said a press release.

The bank’s Deputy Managing Director Shamim Ahmed Chaudhury, Executive Vice President Akhtar Hamid Khan, among others, were present on the occasion.

News: Daily Sun/ Bangladesh/ July-06-2011

Rejaul Karim Byron

The overall deficit in seven state banks, which stands at Tk 3,930 crore, has raised concerns at the policy level. The situation was discussed at a high-level meeting of the finance ministry yesterday where the banks were asked to cut bad assets.

The meeting also found that credit at four state-owned banks increased by 18 percentage points against deposit, for which the banks have been asked to launch more drives to collect deposits to restore a balance.

Top officials of the Bangladesh Bank and different public banks were present at the meeting chaired by Banking Division Secretary Shafiqur Rahman Patwari at the ministry's secretariat office.

According to the finance ministry, five banks -- Janata Bank, Agrani Bank, Rupali Bank, Krishi Bank and Rajshahi Krishi Unnayan Bank -- had a total capital deficit of Tk 5,287 crore. The deficit figure of Janata Bank reflects what it was on March 31, 2011 and the deficits of the rest banks were shown as of May 31, 2011.

Three banks -- Sonali Bank, BASIC Bank and Bangladesh Development Bank -- had a combined capital surplus of Tk 1,357 crore on May 31, 2011.

Till June 30, 2011 the banks were supposed to maintain 9 percent capital of their risk-weighted assets. But from July 1 they have to maintain 10 percent capital of such assets.

Risk-weighted asset means various types of bad loans with a bank. In banking terms loans are a bank's assets and deposits are its liability.

After July 1 the banks' deficit will rise further, said a high official of the finance ministry.

The official said the banks' capital deficit went up mainly due to an increase in the bad loans. Some of the five banks did not have any capital deficit on December 31 last year, rather they had surplus.

According to finance ministry statistics, in March 2011 Janata Bank's risk-weighted asset increased by Tk 3,000 crore compared to December 31, 2010.

The Agrani Bank's risk-weighted asset in May 2011 rose by more than Tk 1,000 crore compared to December 31, 2010. The amount was about Tk 1,800 crore for Rupali Bank in the period.

The finance ministry official said Krishi Bank and Rajshahi Krishi Unnayan Bank are not run only to serve commercial purposes. They have to provide loans to different sectors as per government directives.

However, the meeting directed the state banks to take all-out measures to cut their bad loans. The banks said the pace of disposing of cases against the defaulters is slow.

The meeting asked them to appoint efficient lawyers for quick disposal of the cases.

Another high official of the banking division told The Daily Star that last month they had to release about Tk 1,138 crore to meet the capital deficit of the state banks. They will repay the loans in 40 years.

The credit-deposit ratio of four state banks is within their limit -- 74 percent on June 23, 2011 -- but there is a lack of balance between their deposit and credit growths.

On average, the deposit growth of the four banks is 13 percent but credit growth is 31 percent in the same period.

State-owned BASIC Bank has been under government ownership from its start but it had been a good bank. The bank has no capital deficit but what has raised alarm is that its risk-weighted assets increased sharply.

On December 31, 2009 BASIC Bank's risk-weighted asset was Tk 3,185 crore which stood at Tk 5,703 crore on May 31, 2011.

Bangladesh Bank Deputy Governor Nazrul Huda was also present.

 News: TheDaily Star/ Bangladesh/ July-05-2011

The banking division has directed the managing directors of the state-owned banks (SoBs) and specilised banks to resolve audit objections and dispose off the pending cases through tri-partite meetings outside the Court.

Besides, it asked the banks to enhance their performance and reduce non-performing loans to meet requirement of international standards.

A total of 20,319 cases of the four major state-owned commercial banks-Sonali, Agrani , Janata and Rupali have remained pending blocking a total of Tk 115.40 billion, according to the Bangladesh Bank sources.

“Development of the state-owned banks mostly depends on quick disposal off pending disputes,” banking division secretary Shafiqur Rahman Patwari told daily sun after the meeting with managing directors of the state-owned commercial banks.

He also said that the government would take all kinds of measures regarding development of the 12 public banks.

“The next review meeting of the public banks will be held at banking division in September this year,” he added.

Managing director of four state-owned banks –Sonali, Janata, Agrani and Rupali — and specialised banks such as Bangladesh Krishi Bank, BASIC Bank and Rajshahi Krishi Unnayan Bank, Ansar and VDP Bank , Bangladesh Development Bank Limited, Karmashagthan (employment) Bank, Probashi Kallyan Bank and also Bangladesh Housing Finance Corporation are scheduled to attend the meeting.

Recently Bangladesh Bank conducted a survey on four state owned commercial banks regarding pending cases at courts. As per the survey, 7,232 cases of Agrani Bank, the highest among all state-owned banks, pending total fund of Tk 37.62 billion.

Total 4,670 cases were pending with Sonali Bank blocking Tk 36.60 billion while 4,064 cases of Janata Bank involving Tk 26.23 billion and 4,335 cases of Rupali Bank blocking Tk 14.63 billion were pending.

The state-owned banks managed to recover only 2.3 1 percent default loan from their targeted top 20 defaulters during the first quarter of this calendar year, while the rate was 22 percent from other defaulters, said the sources.

Bangladesh Bank data shows that the state-owned banks recovered only Tk 84.3 million out of total Tk 365 million bad loans from top 20 defaulters in the first quarter this year.

But Rupali Bank could not recover any default loan during the period.

The three banks realised Tk 2.58 billion against a recovery target of Tk 11.90 billion from other defaulters during the period.

 News: Daily Sun/ Bangladesh/ July-05-2011