Kaiser A Chowdhury has been re-appointed as president and managing director of AB Bank. He has been serving the bank holding the same post from 2005.

Chowdhury started his banking career with Grindlays Bank in 1975 and serve the organisation in different capacities at home and abroad, said a statement.

He also worked with ONE Bank as deputy managing director from 1999 to 2004.

He is the winner of Century ERA award at Geneva 2008 and International Quality Summit award at New York 2010 by Business Initiative Directions.

Source: The Daily Star/ Bangladesh/Jan-13-11

Bangladesh Bank, Bangladesh Institute of Bank Management (BIBM) and Institute of Bankers today jointly hosted a reception in honour of former central bank governor AKN Ahmed.

“He (Ahmed) is a living legend in international banking arena who played a crucial role for the development of the financial sector since 1950s and particularly in rebuilding the post independence financial sector in the war torn country,” Bangladesh Bank Governor Dr Atiur Rahman told the reception.

Rahman said Ahmed steered several commercial and the central bank with his wise leadership during his six decades of banking career.

A Dhaka University post-graduate in economics, Ahmed made his debut in career joining the World Bank and subsequently worked for the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and later also served as Bangladesh ambassador to Japan and South Korea.

Deputy Governor of Bangladesh Bank Murshid Kuli Khan chaired the function at the Bangladesh Bank Training Institute at Mirpur, where Ahmed unveiled the plaque of an auditorium named after him.

Several bankers including Ibrahim Khaled spoke at the function.

Source: Daily Sun/ Bangladesh/ Jan-13-11

The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) signed a contract of Tk 100 million with Islami Bank Bangladesh Limited yesterday. The amount will be spent on beautification of Dhaka ahead of the ICC World Cup 2011.

The deal withIslami Bank broke all the previous records involving BCB.

“I am thankful to BCB president AHM Mostafa Kamal for giving us the opportunity to be part of a great event like World Cup. This is a matter of national pride and we are really happy to be involved. We hope it will enable us to make the visitors realise how good Bangladesh is at taking care of their guests,” said Islami Bank chairman, ANM Abduz Zaher. The record amount will be used for renovation of roads, well as building new sections and for the eviction of the illegal establishments around the venues with the help of Bangladesh Army.

Installations and gates will be erected on the airport road and at different points in the city marking the World Cup.

“I am thankful to Islami Bank for being with us and helping us to make this great event a success. Islami Bank has been sponsoring different sports for long time, this is the first instance that they reached out for cricket and I am really grateful and hope they will be with BCB in future as well,” said the BCB president. Islami Bank has been partial sponsors of SA Games in Dhaka where they offered Tk 10 million.

Source: Daily Sun/ Bangladesh/ Jan-13-11

As a part of its corporate social responsibility programme, First Security Islami Bank Ltd has distributed blankets among the destitute children of Aparajeyo-Bangladesh recently.

The bank has taken the initiative jointly with the Bankers Forum, said a press release.

AAM Zakaria, managing director, Md Abdul Quddus, deputy managing director, Azam Khan, Head of marketing, development and PR of FSIBL and MA Khaleque, President of Bankers Forum were also present during the blanket distribution.

FSIBL always extended their assistance for the distressed community in various natural calamities, the news release added.

Source: Daily Sun/ bangladesh/ jan-13-11

United Commercial Bank (UCB) will diversify its loan portfolio this year as it seeks to pave the road to robust growth, the head of the bank said. M. Shahjahan Bhuiyan, managing director, has unveiled the strategic path in a recent business conference of branch managers of the bank. The bank aims to reduce the corporate loan share to 40 per cent from the existing 55 per cent and balance it by increasing small and medium enterprise loans to 40 per cent and retail loan to 20 per cent.

Mr. Bhuiyan said, "We're planning to reshuffle our loan portfolio to absorb the shock of increased cost of borrowing and generate at least 1.0 per cent extra from yield in advance". A recent analysis showed that yield from advances on corporate loan is around 13 per cent. By contrast, yield on advances to SME and retail loan is 14 and 16 per cent respectively. The bank MD estimated it can make additional profit of Tk 7.5 million to 10 million, if it can restructure the loan portfolio successfully.

The private lender is also stressing recovery of loans that were written off earlier by negotiations and court actions. Mr. Bhuiyan said the bank has also set the target of implementing Basel II capital adequacy requirement and aims to select an appropriate Core Banking System (CBS) this year. Implementing a robust CBS, he added, will enable the bank to centralise its banking and embrace technology-driven banking to face the competition successfully. "Diversification of portfolio, reduction of large loan and increased focus to retail and SME segments will be the key to our success in 2011", the bank chief said.

UCB, a first generation bank, has made robust growth last year and was ranked 8th in terms of operating profits, which amounted to Tk. 5.0 billion. Total deposit of the bank reached to Tk 1,131.9 billion and the bank set a target of Tk. 6.5 billion operating profit in 2011.

News Source: Financial Express/Bangladesh/12 Jan 2011