Shahid Hossain, Managing Director of Social Islami Bank Limited and Syed Mohammad Kamal, Country Manager of MasterCard, inks a deal to offer customers maximum utility from card products and services at the bank\'s head office recently.

MasterCard and Social Islami Bank Limited (SIBL) have entered a partnership in an endeavor to offer customers maximum utility from card products and services. The partnership makes SIBL a Principal Member of Mastercard.
The license documents were handed over to the bank in a hand-over ceremony held at SIBL's corporate head office. Present at the ceremony were Shahid Hossain, Managing Director Md. Zabed Amin, Senior Executive Vice President & Head of Retail, Md. Akmal Hossain, Head of International Division of the bank and Syed Mohammad Kamal, Country Manager and Gitanka D Datta, Director of Mastercard Bangladesh, among various other high officials of both organizations.
Syed Mohammad Kamal said following the hand-over, "This new partnership with SIBL strengthens our continued focus to offer a wide range of choice for cards to Mastercard cardholders. We are delighted about the partnership and believe that these Shariah-based Islamic Card products will go a long way in diversifying our product portfolio."
Shahid Hossain added, "SIBL is delighted to become a Principal Member of Mastercard. We believe that through this partnership we will be able to serve our customers with top-of-the-line Islamic products and services, and offer them the maximum utility out of their cards."

Muhammad Awal Khan, Managing Director of Bangladesh Krishi Bank, addressing a training program on \'Refreshers & Motivational Training Program\' at the bank\'s Staff College auditorium in the city recently. Md Abul Hossain, DMD was also present.

Mashrur Arefin, Additional Managing Director of City Bank and Ashwani Nayar, General Manager of Le Méridien Dhaka signed an agreement for discount up to 50 percent on different service at the hotel in the city recently. Farhia Haque, Head of Citygem Pr

Md. Showkat Ali Chowdhury, Director, Eastern Bank ltd formally inaugurates the EBL SKYLOUNGE at Chittagong\'s Shah Amanat International Airport recetly. Bank\'s Directors, Meah Mohammed Abdur Rahim, Ormaan Rafay Nizam, Mufakkharul Islam Khasru, Managing D

The central bank asked banks to narrow their interest-rate spread through lowering both operational costs a+nd classified loans to shun interest squeeze on deposits.

Officials said the major issues troubling the banking system were discussed at a last bankers' meeting held in the central bank headquarters in Dhaka with the Bangladesh Bank (BB) Governor, Fazle Kabir, in the chair.

The banks had already been instructed to remain pro-active and help check the falling interest rates on deposits.

BB's latest move came against the backdrop of recurrent fall in the interest rates on deposits in recent times.

"As part of persuasion, we're advising that the banks reduce their interest-rate spread, particularly lowering lending rates, to facilitate local investment in different sectors," a senior BB official told the FE Wednesday.

He also said the banks had already been advised to reduce the spread through improving their efficiency as well as profitability both instead of slashing the interest rates on public deposits.

"The banks will have to reduce the amounts of non-performing loans (NPLs) immediately for improving their overall financial health," the central banker noted.

The classified loans jumped by more than 21 per cent or Tk 108.01 billion in the last calendar year despite close monitoring by the central bank.

The aggregate amount rose to Tk 621.72 billion as on December 31 last from Tk 513.71 billion the same day of the previous year, the BB data showed.

Meanwhile, the bank's interest rates on lending decreased slightly in the month of March following persuasion of bankers continuously by the BB.

The weighted average interest rates on lending fell to 9.70 per cent in March last from 9.77per cent in the previous month while interest rates on deposits came down to 5.01 per cent from 5.08 per cent.

On the other hand, overall spread in the country's banking sector remained unchanged in March as the banks slashed their interest rates on both lending and deposit equally.

The weighted average spread between lending and deposit rates offered by the commercial banks stood at 4.69 per cent in March 2016 unchanged from the previous month, according to the central bank latest statistics.

The spread being maintained by at least 14 commercial banks out of 57 still ranges as high as between more than 5.0 per cent and 8.38 per cent.

Average spread with the six state-owned commercial banks (SoCBs) is 4.01 per cent, private commercial banks (PCBs) 4.73 per cent, foreign commercial banks (FCBs) 6.38 per cent and specialised banks (SBs) 3.37 per cent.

Excluding consumer finance and credit card, the spread of all banks also came down to 4.59 per cent in March 2017 from 4.60 per cent a month ago.

Talking to the FE, a senior official of a leading private commercial bank also said the banks may not be able to reduce the spread further without decreasing the amount of NPLs.

He also said there is no scope to slash interest rates on deposits further considering the inflationary pressure on the economy.

The rate of inflation was 5.41 per cent in February 2017 in a drop from 5.44 per cent of the previous month on a 12-month-average basis, according to Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) data.