Mutual Trust Bank Ltd (MTB) recently launched "MTB Student Banking" with two tailor-made deposit products - MTB Junior and MTB Graduate for students.

Industries Minister Dilip Barua launched the new products at the inaugural ceremony of "MTB Student Banking 4th BUETDC Debate Championship 2011" at the auditorium of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET), said a press release.

Initially, MTB Student Banking will comprise of these two deposit products, MTB Junior and MTB Graduate.

Among others, BUET vice-chancellor Professor Dr SM Nazrul Islam, pro vice-chancellor Professor Dr M Habibur Rahman, Professor Dr Aminul Hoque of BUET, journalist and human rights activist Shahriar Kabir, Daily Jugantor Editor Advocate Salma Islam MP were present at the event as special guests.

MTB Junior is a savings account tailor-made for the students aged below 18 years (a guardian will be the custodian) while MTB Graduate is customised for students aged 18 years or above. They are entitled to open the accounts showing their ID Cards. Both the products offer attractive interest rates, free debit cards and free internet banking.

MTB deputy managing directors Md Hashem Chowdhury and Md Ahsan-uz Zaman, head of business- retail Gazi Yar Mohammed, senior officials of the bank and a large number of debaters and students participated in the function.

News: Daily Sun/ Bangladesh/ Mar-19-2011

City Bank has been sponsoring Joyodhoni album arranged by Akkhor Production to inspire the Bangladesh National Cricket team.

SEL (Structural Engineers Ltd), however, is co-sponsoring the album, now available all over the country including Dhaka, Sylhet and Chittagong.

The album contains 10 songs and was released on February 20, under the label of G-Series-Agniveena, said a press release.

News: Daily Sun/ Bangladesh/ Mar-19-2011

Bad loans in the country’s banking system declined significantly thanks to the central bank’s proper monitoring and effective steps by respective banks to get rid of the defalut culture. Accoriding to Bangladesh Bank (BB), the default loan declined by Taka 1,379 crore in three months during the last quarter of 2010 when the total amount of bad loans came down to Taka 22,709 crore on December 31 from Taka 24,088 crore on September 30, 2010.
The classified loan also declined to 7.27 percent from 8.47 percent in the same period, bringing the rate of net default loan down to 1.28 in December from September’s 1.64 percent.
The state-owned banks, however, still remained at the top with 15.66 percent classified loans, followed by specialised banks (24.15 percent) and private bank (3.15 percent). The foreign banks operating in the country maintained the lowest 2.99 percent default loan.
The rate of default loans was higher at 19.65 percent at the public banks in September last year when it was 23.83 percent in specialised banks, 3.82 percent in private banks and 2.50 percent in foreign banks.
Another statistic of the BB showed most of the banks already achieved the required level of capital adequacy in accordance with the BASEL-II guideline. According to the guildeline, banks were supposed to mainatin 8 percent of their risk-based assets as capital adequacy by June 2010, 9 percent by June 2011 and 10 percent and above from next July and onward.
According to BB, 7-8 banks failed to achieve the target until December last year, of which four were state-owned banks.
The BB, however, asked the respective banks to take effective measures to attain the stipulated capital adequacy ratio.

News: The Independent/ Bangladesh/ Mar-17-2011

Masud Ahmed Khan, a veteran bailker, on promotion has joined Bangladesh Krishi Bank recently, says a press release. Prior to this position, he was the Gencral Managcr of the same  bank. He started his banking career as Scnior
officer of Bangladcsh Krishi Bank in 1980.
At the early stage he worked at CARE Bangladesh and BIDS. He also holds thc responsibility of a general manager in house Building Finance Corporation.

News: The Independent/ Bangladesh/ Mar-17-2011

The Sonali Bank Limited, a state-owned commercial bank, will provide Tk 2.0 billion for the Bangladesh Fund (BF), a proposed open-ended mutual fund to salvage the troubled stock market.

The fund was approved at its 186th board meeting of the bank on Monday in Dhaka.

With Kazi Baharul Islam, chairman of board of directors of the bank, in the chair, the meeting was attended by Sonali Bank Managing Director and CEO M Humayun Kabir and the board of directors.

Earlier, the state owned institutions took an initiative to form a fund to improve the situation of capital market in the country. As part of its initiative, the Investment Corporation of Bangladesh (ICB), the major sponsor of the BF, approved Tk 5 billion for the Fund on March 6.

News: Daily Sun/ Bangladesh/ Mar-17-2011