Islami Bank Bangladesh Limited (IBBL) on Friday has awarded 400 scholarships among underprivileged students who have obtained GPA-5 in SSC and HSC equivalent examinations in 2010. Commerce Minister Muhammad Faruk Khan handed over the scholarship money, equivalent of six-months education expenditure among the students in a ceremony organized in the capital by IBBL.
As part of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives, IBBL through Islami Bank Foundation awarded Tk 1,000 each per month among 200 SSC qualified students and Tk 1,500 each per month
among another 200 HSC qualified students.
Speaking on the occasion, commerce minister gave emphasis of quality education for building a brighter nation and called it a need for the vision of Digital Bangladesh.
Presided over by IBBL chairman Prof Abu Naser Muhammad Abduz Zaher, the award giving ceremony was attended by president of Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI) A. K. Azad, Vice Chancellor of Minaret International University Professor Dr Mohammad Abdur Rob, Vice Chancellor of BRAC University Dhaka Professor Dr Ainun Nishat and others.

News: The Independent/Bangladesh/22 Jan 2011

The state-owned Rupali Bank Ltd will introduce automated banking services at its 492 branches across the country within this year.

Online service at 128 special branches will also be launched during this time.

The decision came at the ‘Annual Business Conference 2011’ of the bank at Bangabandhu International Conference Center (BICC) in the city yesterday.

Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister's Office M Abdul Karim attended the function as chief guest while Ahmed Al-Kabir, chairman of board of directors of the bank, was present as special guest.

Farid Uddin, managing director, heads of all zonal offices and high officials of the bank were also present at the function.

‘Now Bangladesh is enlisted with 11 emerging economic countries of the world and to make it a middle income country by 2021, we will have to attract foreign investments,” Abdul Karim said, adding that ‘banks may work as mediator in this regard.’

Emphasising investment in public private partnership (PPP) projects, he said it would increase the bank’s profit range.

He called upon the bank authority to organise more training for its employees to make them prudent in banking operation.

Karim also urged them to increase corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities and introduce e-banking service for the clients to reduce operation cost of the bank.

Farid Uddin said the bank is introducing Eldorado Remittance System at its 128 branches to facilitate remittance flow through the bank.

“Manpower shortage was the main problem to cop with the situation and we already recruited a good number of senior officers and more officers will be recruited soon,” he said, adding that the bank was providing training on SME banking and foreign exchange apart form general trainings.

Regarding bank’s CSR activity, Farid Uddin said Rupali Bank usually extend its helping hands towards the affected people in natural disasters.

“To create self-employment we offered bank accounts just for Tk 50 for young people and Tk 10 for farmers,” he added.

The bank also organised ‘Prime Customers’ Night’ and provided certificates among some of its elite clients.

News: Daily Sun/Bangladesh/22 Jan 2011

The state-owned Rupali Bank Ltd will introduce automated banking services at its 492 branches across the country within this year.

Online service at 128 special branches will also be launched during this time.

The decision came at the ‘Annual Business Conference 2011’ of the bank at Bangabandhu International Conference Center (BICC) in the city yesterday.

Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister's Office M Abdul Karim attended the function as chief guest while Ahmed Al-Kabir, chairman of board of directors of the bank, was present as special guest.

Farid Uddin, managing director, heads of all zonal offices and high officials of the bank were also present at the function.

‘Now Bangladesh is enlisted with 11 emerging economic countries of the world and to make it a middle income country by 2021, we will have to attract foreign investments,” Abdul Karim said, adding that ‘banks may work as mediator in this regard.’

Emphasising investment in public private partnership (PPP) projects, he said it would increase the bank’s profit range.

He called upon the bank authority to organise more training for its employees to make them prudent in banking operation.

Karim also urged them to increase corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities and introduce e-banking service for the clients to reduce operation cost of the bank.

Farid Uddin said the bank is introducing Eldorado Remittance System at its 128 branches to facilitate remittance flow through the bank.

“Manpower shortage was the main problem to cop with the situation and we already recruited a good number of senior officers and more officers will be recruited soon,” he said, adding that the bank was providing training on SME banking and foreign exchange apart form general trainings.

Regarding bank’s CSR activity, Farid Uddin said Rupali Bank usually extend its helping hands towards the affected people in natural disasters.

“To create self-employment we offered bank accounts just for Tk 50 for young people and Tk 10 for farmers,” he added.

The bank also organised ‘Prime Customers’ Night’ and provided certificates among some of its elite clients.

News: Daily Sun/Bangladesh/22 Jan 2011

Sarwar A Chowdhury

The stockmarket regulator yesterday suspended six stockbrokers' trading activities for 30 days on charges of their involvement in the ongoing volatility in the secondary market.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) took the action after trading was halted by the share index breaker within five minutes into the start of transactions. The benchmark index slumped by 600 points on Dhaka Stock Exchange before the circuit-breaker put brakes on trading on the twin bourses.

The suspended stockbrokers are Al Arafah Islami Bank, Dhaka Bank Securities, NCC Bank Brokerage, PFI Securities, Alliance Securities and Management and IIDFC Securities.

Also, the regulator stripped managing directors and chief executive officers of the six brokerage houses of official duties and responsibilities for the next 30 days. They are: Rezaur Rahman of Al Arafah Islami Bank, Kamrul Aziz Nippon of Dhaka Bank Securities, Manjum Ali of NCC Bank, Kazi Fariduddin Ahmed of PFI, Pankaj Roy of Alliance Securities, and Ashrafun Nessa of IIDFC.

SEC officials said the surveillance department of the commission found irregularities in the brokerage houses in a primary investigation. Buy offers came from these brokerage houses at comparatively higher prices, but sell-offs occurred at much lower prices than the buyers' offers, the officials said. There was a buy offer, for instance, at Tk 330 for a stock, but sellers sold it for Tk 300.

In another move, the stockmarket regulator postponed the book building method for initial public offers following heavy criticism by market experts and intermediaries.

In recent times, the book building method turned out to be a tool for manipulating prices in Bangladesh, although it is a widely practised price-fixing mechanism for IPOs, market analysts said.

At a press briefing yesterday, the Dhaka Stock Exchange said the companies that were listed under the book building system should be probed to find out how the price distortion took place by deceiving retail investors.

The book-building method was introduced in Bangladesh in 2009 and only three instances of such practices were found. But a number of companies are in the pipeline to list on the stockmarket under the system.

The SEC will also sit with all market stakeholders to discuss the market situation on Sunday, and the market will remain closed that day as decided by the regulator.

News: The Daily Star/Bangladesh/21 Jan 2011

Bangladesh Bank wants a proper investigation into the current volatility of stock market and it has decided, in principle, not to pump any money into the share market, BB sources said yesterday.

Repo auctions to ensure adequate supply of liquidity in the banking sector will, however, be continued, sources added.

On last Monday and Tuesday, the BB disbursed a total of Tk 4 billion in favour of Investment Corporation of Bangladesh (ICB) in two equal installments.

The BB acts as the money market controller as it mainly reins in the inflation through proper monetary policy while SEC regulates the capital market, but the central bank is being held responsible for the volatility in the capital market, which is irrational, the central bank said in a statement yesterday.

A stable and comprehensive stock market plays a very important role for a long-term financing source. For building up confidence among the investors and ensuring a stable share market, the BB took a number of supportive measures much earlier, it said.

The BB had to control the liquidity flow to rein in inflation for ensuring stability in the banking sector, and serve the depositors’ interests through monitoring, it mentioned adding that it recently took a growth supporting monetary policy.

The new policy ensures that low interest loans are not used as consumer loans or go outside the money market. In view of it, the BB specified some sectors like agriculture and SMEs for increased loan flow.

Bangladesh Bank Governor, Dr Atiur Rahman, at a meeting with the bankers in late 2009, warned that some banks were investing their excess liquidity in the capital market. “It won’t be an offence if they do it strictly following BB and SEC’s compliance guidelines,” he added.

The capital market, otherwise, might witness a very volatile situation and banks’ main capital might also be in danger, he warned adding: “This would affect both the depositors and the equity.”

In October 2009, BB issued a circular in line with Bank Company Act, 1991 instructing the scheduled banks to open separate subsidiary company by January 2010 for merchant banking, which is yet to be fully implemented.

Earlier, in July of the same year, the central bank issued another circular asking them not to exceed their share market investment limit, 10 percent of their total liabilities, according to the act.

Despite their failure to meet the January 2010 deadline of separating merchant banking from the mainstream banking activities, the BB did not take any actions against them. Instead, it kept on reminding them of share buying limit.

News: Daily Sun/Bangladesh/21 Jan 2011