Jamuna Bank opened its 64th Branch at Holding no.790, Hamid Road, Pabna Sadar, Pabna. The Branch was inaugurated by Al-Haj Nur Mohammed, Chairman, Jamuna Bank foundation as Chief Guest said a press release.

Md. Belal Hossain, Director, Board of Directors, Jamuna Bank Limited was present as Special guest in the inaugural program. Md. Motior Rahman, Managing Director, Jamuna Bank Limited presided over the inaugural ceremony. Valued business personalities, social elites, politicians and other valued people graced the occasion.

Source: Daily Sun

Bank Asia opened its 48th branch at Paltan in the city yesterday.

Romo Rouf Chowdhury, director of the bank inaugurated the branch.

A M Nurul Islam, director, Erfanuddin Ahmed, president and managing director, Aminul Islam and S M Khorshed Alam, deputy managing directors of the bank were present on the occasion, said a press release.

Members of the business community, local elite and a large number of people also attended the inaugural ceremony.

The Paltan branch of the bank has been equipped with all modern banking facilities including on-line banking and ATM.

Starting its operation in 1999, Bank Asia has become one of the most innovative banks in the country’s banking sector. It offers a wide range of financial services that covers the entire spectrum of banking operations.

In addition, it has launched Islami Banking, brokerage, SME banking, ATM and internet banking under its on-line platform to deliver the highest standard of service to its clientele, ably supported by the use of state-of-the-art technology.

Source: Daily Sun

Islami Bank has been put under the scanner of Bangladesh Bank (BB) again for its alleged misuse of Zakaat Fund.
A BB official told the agency that the central bank started an investigation into the allegation against Islami Bank that the Bank misused huge amount of money, collected from the members of public as Zakaat. The central bank in November appointed an observer to Islami Bank after getting complaint that the bank was transferring huge suspicious fund to its subsidiary, Islami Bank Foundation.
The BB also imposed a ban on transfer of any fund from Islami Bank to its foundation while the observer would be identifying any suspicious transactions and activities of the bank and its foundation,
The BB official said the central bank received another complaint on December 15 against the Islami Bank for its alleged misuse of Zakaat fund. This time the central bank got the compliant from the Zakaat Board.
Established in 1982 under the umbrella of the Islamic Foundation, Zakaat Board collects, manages and oversees the Zakaat in the country.
In a letter to the BB governor, the Board said it is entitled to collect Zakaat through an account under the name of ‘Government Zakaat Fund’. But the Islami Bank opened a similar account in the name of ‘Islami Bank Foundation’ to collect Zakaat.
The Board said the matter was referred to an expert committee of the Islami Foundation for comment and the committee observed that operation of such account by Islami Bank was a violation of banking act.
The committee also observed that the Islami Foundation has been spending money from the Zakaat Fund in many projects and activities those are not supported by Islamic Shariah.
Referring to the opinion of the expert committee, the Board in the letter mentioned that the Islami Bank Foundation had been spending Zakaat fund to run different activities at their own choice instead of following the criteria, set in Holy Qura’n, for distributing and spending Zakaat.
The Board advised for taking initiative to stop such activities by the Islami Bank and take back the huge amount of money, collected through the Islami Bank Foundation account, which is legally belongs to the government Zakaat fund.
Islami Bank Foundation was also found operating an unauthorized micro-credit programme during a Bangladesh Bank investigation in May this year.
Any micro-finance institution or non-government organisation has to obtain permission from the Micro-credit Regulatory Authority (MRA) to run the credit programme. Islami Bank Foundation is yet to get any MRA licence.
According to MRA Act, 2006, organisations will face maximum Taka 5 lakh fine or one year in jail or the both if found running unlicensed micro-credit activities.
The Islamic Foundation earlier this year also filed a case against former BNP state minister for religious affairs Mosharref Hossain Shahjahan, former Jamaat lawmaker Delwar Hossain Saydee, and two others, on charges of misappropriating Taka 1.28 crore from the government Zakat Fund.

Source: The Independent

Bangladesh Bank (BB) today tightened credit to rice traders, millers and hoarders for ensuring
adequate supply of rice to the market and bringing down the price at consumers’ comfort level. The central bank in a circular today directed all the banks to adjust the advances to the rice millers and traders in 30 days from disbursements.
Currently, rice millers are allowed to adjust their advances in the form of revolving CC [cash credit] and OD [over draft] in 45 days when the rice traders get 30 days.
The new directive will force millers to sell rice sooner to adjust the loan, which will eventually help increase supply of rice to market, said a BB official.
The BB also issued two more circulars today, one of which limited the ratio of car loan to 50:50.
The other circular made import of equipment for effluent treatment facility (ETF) mandatory for opening letters of credit (LC) for setting up new industries.
It also asked all the banks not to provide existing industries working capitals if they do not have effective effluent treatment facility.
The central bank also directed the banks to consider EFT before financing any industry of BMRE of an existing one.

Source: The Independent 

The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Trust Bank Limited—Shah A. Sarwar— fells that the latest call-money market volatility was a result of failed management by some financial institutions hich overlooked the importance of keeping balance between profit and liability. “If a financial institution goes for excessive profits, it might compromise its stance on liquidity, making itself vulnerable in the face of crisis,” he said.
  The top official of the Trust Bank Ltd said this while talking to The Independent in an interview, elaborating the latest money market volatility that surged as high as 180 per cent.
Financial Institution is a long term institution, have to build up its inner capacity in a way that it can stand tall to face both immediate and long terms issues.
According to him, there has been a significant availability of liquid money as a result of the country’s present investment scenario. Other than investment in the agriculture sectors, there has been a pause of investment in other sectors, he explained.
Misguided by this concentration of liquidity in the market, some financial institutions engaged themselves in investing into ‘non-cash generating sectors’ instead of managing its liquidity in a more wise modes, he said.
Mentioning banks investment in sectors like secondary equity and speculative real-estate markets, Mr Sarwar signalled caution in order to escape the effect of similar market volatility in coming days.
When a financial institution fails to maintain its control to invest into these sectors where commensurate cash return is unlikely, then the institution become vulnerable to such money market turmoil, he said.
Besides, when a bank invest huge amount of its capital/liquidity in expanding and renovating its premises, can find itself into liquidity shortage, he added.
“One or all these aspects could have played role in creating such shortage and likely be the reason behind the latest volatility,” he elaborated.
Explaining the stable position of the Trust Bank Ltd at the face of the recent money market instability, its MD/CEO attributed his bank’s management planning, followed by forward looking investment policy and understanding of the market movement.
“We have not managed the situation by fluke,” Mr Sarwar said, pointing out that it was an outcome of the bank’s wise policy.
Apprehending the current market scenario, he said, our bank management has undertaken several steps in last couple of months ‘with caution’.
“We have consciously come out of secondary stock market in keeping with our safety measures,” he said adding that they have ensured balance in investment in all sectors.
He said that it was essential that the CEO demonstrated leadership to strike a right balance between profitability and liquidity.
The Trust Bank chief maintained such a balance that helped the bank sail through smoothly when the market went into the extreme volatile phase recently, Mr Sarwar said.
It is also important to finance through a segment and sectoral balance to avoid structural cash flow issue and Trust Bank could do so successfully. When some private commercial banks put money in non-cash generating risky areas, the Trust Bank Ltd remained careful not to indulge.
“In line with the Bangladesh Bank’s policy, we were careful about investing in the over-heated stock market and also in other unproductive areas, and that’s why, we remained safe,” Mr Sarwar added.
Replying to a question, he said that his bank adjusted the stock market investment in last June as the stock market was going up to an unending limit.

Source: The Independent