Bank Asia provided a three-week long foundation training course to its 25 officers in an effort to improve their professional efficiencies.

A Rouf Chowdhury, chairman of the bank, handed over certificates to the participants at the concluding ceremony held at the Bank’s training institute at Panthapath, in the city recently, said a press release.

Deputy managing directors Irteza Reza Chowdhury and Mohammed Roshangir and senior executives of the bank were present.

Bank Asia always lays the highest importance on training of its employees as a continuous process of human resources development.

News: Daily Sun/Bangladesh/ May-04-2011

Pubali Bank Limited has inaugurated its Pangsha Branch at Rajbari recently.

Chairman of Executive Committee, Board of Directors of the bank Syed Moazzem Hussain formally inaugurated the branch as chief guest while managing director Helal Ahmed Chowdhury presided over the inauguration ceremony, said a press release.

In his speech, Syed Moazzem Hussain said that Pubali Bank is committed to providing the best and innovative banking services needs of the market at fastest possible time. As a part for providing better services and client’s increasing demand, the bank has opened its branch at Pangsha, he expressed with the hope that the bank would surely serve its customers with utmost satisfaction by applying modern technology through this branch.

In this context, he urged the local businessmen to avail the facility of the bank to expand their ventures.

Helal Ahmed Chowdhury said that the bank has been providing better services for its customer with a promise to keep up its original tradition. He also said, PBL gives priority to provide opportunity and advantage to the customers through application of modern technologies. With a view to expanding the scope of services, the bank has opened its branch at Pangsha.

He expressed the hope that the branch would make remarkable contributions to the business development of this area. He also urged all the local people for extending co-operation to the bank.

Deputy managing director Safiul Alam Khan Chowdhury, regional manager of Barisal Syed Abdul Mazid and local elite and renowned businessmen were also attended in the function.

News: Daily Sun/Bangladesh/ May-04-2011

NCC Bank Ltd has signed an agreement with Dutch-Bangla Bank Ltd (DBBL) for sharing ATM and POS network to provide 24 hours cash withdrawal and shopping facility to the customers of the Bank.

Md Omar Faruque Bhuiyan, head of Card Division of NCC Bank and Abul Kashem Khan, head of IT of Dutch-Bangla Bank signed the agreement on behalf of their respective organisations on Tuesday, said a press release.

Mohammed Nurul Amin, managing director of NCC Bank and KS Tabrez, managing director of Dutch-Bangla Bank were present the function.

Among others, additional managing director Golam Hafiz Ahmed, deputy managing directors AK Md Siddique, Mohabbat Khan and TM Faruque Chowdhury of NCC Bank and deputy managing directors Abul Kashem Md Shirin, Md Sayedul Hasan and Md Mosaddiqur Rahman of Dutch-Bangla Bank and senior official of both the organization were also present on the occasion.

News: Daily Sun/Bangladesh/ May-04-2011

In the wake of rising inflationary pressures that largely hurt the country’s poor and middle-class, a renowned economist thinks that the Bangladesh Bank efforts to rein inflation will not going to bring results soon. “Anti-inflationary monetary policy is not going to impact largely in reining inflation,” said Dr Mustafa Kamal Mujeri during an interview with UNB staff correspondent Golam Moin Uddin.
He said there is a need to closely monitor the monetary activities as well as credit flow to ensure that production is not hindered in different sectors.
The country’s overall inflation in March this year reached a double-digit level due to hike of commodity prices in the local market and turmoil in the Middle East.
The overall point-to-point inflation has moved higher to 10.49 per cent in March compared to the same period of the previous year, according to the latest Consumer Price Index (CPI) report prepared by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS). The general food inflation in March 2011 increased to 13.87 per cent.  Earlier, the country experienced a double-digit inflation in July 2008, November and December in 1998, and July in 1995. According to the BBS data, the country-wide point-to-point food inflation rate in March this year reached 13.87 per cent while the non-food inflation was 4.32 per centage points.
Dr Mujeri, also the Director General of Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS) said the major reason for inflationary pressure is more in the structural factors than in monetary factors.
The structural factors are supply bottlenecks, market imperfection, supply disruption, global price-hike of food and oil, and very high inflationary expectations.He said that the inflation is rising, especially the food inflation, and it has not cooled down.
Dr Mujeri observed that the current high food inflation may also impact on non-food inflation, which is currently little lower than food inflation.
He also cited strong domestic demand, high private sector credit growth, increased consumer spending and huge liquid money with the public as some of the reasons behind the inflationary pressure. He said: “There is now huge liquid money with the public - around Tk 10,000 crore - for various reasons.” The BIDS DG observed that the current inflation situation might affect the life standard of the commoners especially the poor and the middle-class, but that will be temporary. “The Boro yield is expected to be good this season and it will have an impact on price. If the production appears good, the market is also likely to be stable.”
He expressed doubts over the success of the steps taken by the central bank to control credit by increasing the cost of credit through increasing the rate of Repo and reverse Repo to rein inflation.
“The use of Repo and reverse Repo should be made more frequent and the Bangladesh Bank should be more pro-active so that the monetary policy becomes prudent,” he said.
Asked whether the inflationary situation may hinder the growth momentum, Dr Mujeri said that the pre-condition of growth is the macroeconomic stability.
“If inflation rises, the other balances including the external sector are disrupted and the poor are largely affected, which could also put a barrier on inclusive growth.”
He said the rising trend of inflation needs to be contained to retain the macroeconomic stability as well as the growth momentum.
According to the BBS, the inflation in the rural areas in March this year reached 11.33 per centage points with 4.84 per centage point food inflation and 4.39 per centage point non-food inflation.
The urban areas have experienced 8.40 per centage point inflation on point-to-point basis, with 11.66 per centage point food inflation, and 4.13 per centage point non-food inflation.
The economy of the country has experienced double-digit inflation of 10.8 per centage point in July 2008, 11.04 per centage point in November and 12.7 per centage point in December 1998, and 11.4 per centage point in July 1995.

News:The Independent/ Bangladesh/ May-03-2011

BRAC Bank, one of the leading banks in Bangladesh, has chosen Oracle Service Bus for Financial Services and Oracle WebLogic 11g, part of the Oracle Fusion Middleware products family, as a platform to help modernize its banking operations so that business and operational efficiency can be ensured. Prior to deploying Oracle, the bank was facing difficulty in establishing point-to- point integration while keeping up with changing business requirements.
The bank was also facing difficulties in maintenance, monitoring and troubleshooting of the existing integration points without any centralized middleware application.
Oracle Service Bus for Financial Services will enable BRAC bank with a flexible infrastructure to integrate various third party applications, while providing the IT team with the ability to centrally configure polices and ensure security of the exposed services.
Oracle WebLogic 11g helps ensure rapid deployment and ease of integration through a single tool, thus reducing work load on the internal team while providing the additional capabilities of managing and monitoring communications among all applications.  “Oracle solutions based on Open Industry Standards will help our bank to extend and evolve our existing applications instead of replacing them,” said Nawed Iqbal, Chief Technology Officer, BRAC Bank.
“This deployment will not only result in considerable cost savings but also provide us with improved applications and will address the combination needs for the country’s fastest growing technology savvy bank”. Said Mr. Mamun Seraji, Head of Business Systems Management, BRAC Bank “With the successful deployment of Oracle Fusion Middleware, BRAC Bank will be able to provide better service to their customers” said Sajid Akbar, Country Manager, Oracle Fusion Middleware, South Asia Growth Economies West.
“They will also be able to address their ISO8583 transformations requirement, which is particular to the financial Industry, thus ensuring that the various IT systems within the organization can communicate with one another.”
Oracle has been operating in Bangladesh since 1999 though a local partner. Oracle’s commitment extends to its extensive network of alliances, channel partners and resellers in Bangladesh, who are members of the Oracle PartnerNetwork.

News:The Independent/ Bangladesh/ May-03-2011