Eastern Bank Ltd (EBL) has recently signed an agreement with VLCC Healthcare (Bangladesh) Pvt Ltd, a supplier of leading wellness brand in Asia.

Under the agreement the EBL’s platinum cardholders and priority customers will avail exclusive packages at VLCC outlets, said a press release.

Ali Reza Iftekhar, managing director and CEO of EBL and Sandeep Ahuja, director of VLCC, inked the agreement at a ceremony on Monday.

News: Daily Sun/ Bangladesh/ Apr-29-2011

HSBC Bangladesh has recently closed two euro-dollar 'seagull' transactions with ACI Group, the bank said yesterday.

A seagull option is a three-legged strategy used in forex trading that offers a hedge against undesirable changes in the price of the underlying asset and provides advantages from any market move in their favour. HSBC said the currency hedging solution will safeguard ACI against exchange risks arising from import obligations.

Unlike a plain forward transaction, the client does not have to pay any premium cost for this.

A forerunner in actively analysing various hedging tools used in the international market, ACI Group earlier used a cross-currency option to hedge their currency risk before closing the Seagull deal with HSBC.

“ACI has always been in the forefront of using financial engineering tools available under Bangladesh's forex regulations,” said Muallem A Chowdhury, executive director for finance and planning of ACI Group.

Bashar M Tareq, head of global markets of HSBC Bangladesh, said: “As the world's local bank, HSBC is committed to support the development of local financial markets and offer relevant solutions to our clients, aligned with the local regulatory framework.”

News: The Daiy Star/ Bangladesh/ Apr-28-2011

Involvement of all banks in capital market is not true because crores of taka are still lying idle with them, Bangladesh Bank (BB) governor Dr Atiur Rahman said on Tuesday.
Speaking on the allegation of the share market debacle being attributed to banks, the governor said the central bank's reputation in regulation of the financial sector has been tarnished due to overexposure to the capital market by several banks. Atiur was speaking at the seminar on "Financial Stability and Risk Management in the Banking Sector" at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre.
The seminar was organised by Dhaka School of Economics in association with Bangladesh Economic Association (BEA) and Bangladesh Institute of Bank Management (BIBM).
He said the stress testing capacity of the banks is very weak and the central bank is giving technical assistance to the banks for improving it.
He said the auditing and financial reporting standard of the banks is very low. In most cases, this lead to poor performance in risk management due to wrong or misleading assessments.
"Given the huge costs of financial instability and crisis in terms of human distress and financial losses, financial system stability and risk management in the banking sector are now in foremost regulatory and supervisory focus at all levels, institutional, national and global," Atiur said.
He said the banking sector risk appraisal and management practices are not static; these need to evolve as new product and process innovations in financial services bring up new risk features and risk structures.
He said the liquidity difficulties make the banks unable to settle clearing and other interbank payment obligations, spreading the crisis of confidence.
Speaking on the occasion, former BB governor Dr Salehuddin Ahmed underscored the need for quality supervision by banks themselves and the central bank regarding stress testing.
He also noted that capacity building in the areas of Human Resource Development (HRD) and Information Technology (IT) by each and every bank is weak..
"Quality supervision is important to follow the international rules and accords which would help banks to contribute rightly as per directives of the central bank with regard to financial stability," he said.
He said Basel III (the Basle Committee for effective Bank Supervision) has emphasised the supervisory review process.
Keynote speaker, Dr Toufiq Ahmad Choudhury said banks in Bangladesh must implement all relevant issues of the Basel II by the stipulated time as the Basel III is planned to start journey from 2013.
Two other professors of BIBM, Dr Shah Md. Ahsan Habib and Dr Nehal Ahmed also worked to prepare the keynote paper. The seminar was addressed by former BB advisor Habibullah Bahar, among others.

News: The Independent/ Bangladesh/ Apr-28-2011

Pubali Bank Limited has re-elected Hafiz Ahmed Mazumder, a prominent social worker and Member of Parliament as a chairman and Habibur Rahman, an elite business personality as vice-chairman of the board of directors of Pubali Bank Ltd in its 818th board meeting held at the head office of the bank recently, says a press release. Hafiz Ahmed Mazumder is also an eminent industrialist and tea planter. Habibur Rahman is also the sponsor director of Green Delta Insurance, Delta Hospital and Delta Medical Center.

News: The Independent/ Bangladesh/ Apr-28-2011

Jamuna Bank elected Md Belal Hossain as chairman at the bank's 168th board meeting in Dhaka yesterday.

Hossain is the managing director of Belcon Company (Pvt) Ltd, Nadia Food and Agro Industries (Pvt) Ltd and BH Specialised Cold Storage (Pvt) Ltd.

He also owns Bandhu Rice Mill and New National Rice Mill, the bank said in a statement yesterday.

News: The Daiy Star/ Bangladesh/ Apr-28-2011