Bangladesh Bank (BB) has asked banks not to finance the purchase of any car older than five years.

The central bank emphasised that the banks willing to finance the purchase of used cars must prepare a set of uniform guidelines to determine the value of the vehicles.

“However, in no case the banks will finance the cars older than five years,” it said in a notice to the scheduled banks.

The central bank also instructed the banks to finance the vehicles imported as described in the existing import policy order.

Source: The Daily Star

Dhaka, Dec 20: BRAC Bank Ltd. (BBL) on Sunday launched Bangladesh's first e-commerce banking platform in alliance with Visa, thereby opening an opportunity for Bangladeshi citizens to use Visa cards for shopping online. Any Bangladeshi with internet access now can shop online with a Visa card or any card issued by BRAC Bank. Attending as the chief guest, Dr. Atiur Rahman, Governor of Bangladesh Bank, inaugurated the country’s first e-commerce banking system at a city hotel on Sunday.

Md. A. (Rumee) Ali, Chairman of BBL, Syed Mahbubur Rahman, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of BBL and Uttam Nayak, Group Country Manager (India and South Asia) of Visa were present along with senior officials, leading merchants and clients.

“The central bank has continuously been facilitating bringing banking to the doorsteps of the general mass. This online shopping is another milestone in that journey. I am happy to inaugurate this service brought first time in Bangladesh and that too by a Bangladeshi bank,” the Banglaesh Bank Governor said.

Md. A. (Rumee) Ali, said, “I think this will pave the way for many companies to start doing business online. This hopefully will be the start of online business revolution for Bangladeshi companies enabling them to keep up with the rest of the world and innovate how they interact with their customers.”

Uttam Nayak in his speech said that e-commerce would not only reduce cost of transaction but also save couple of hours rather than shopping physically.

E-commerce facilitates remote payments which are better than face-to-face payments, he said and adding it will give an opportunity to include more people in banking transaction, one’s who buying goods and other’s who selling goods. Firoz Ahmed Khan, Head of Retail Banking, while demonstrating the new service features at the launching ceremony said that the new shopping platform would work just any other developed online stores work.

Consumers can browse and choose their products on either the online super-stores or individual shops and then they can add the products to their cards through checking out finally, they simply need to put their details from BBL or Visa card. Online ticket booking with ones credit card and general retail purchases online have been something many credit card holders have been waiting to be able to do for years while many working Bangladeshis facing problems as the shops are normally closed at 8 pm., he said.

BRAC Bank online shopping is open for 24 hours making it possible for retail products, companies and stores to keep earning long after shopping hours are over, he added.

Source:The Independent

Janata Bank Ltd will extend its loan facility to the small investors of footwear and tannery industries in exporting their products overseas, said its managing director and CEO yesterday.

S M Aminur Rah- man, managing director and CEO of Janata Bank was attending a certificate distribution ceremony of a skill development workshop for the small investors at Biam auditorium in the city, said a press release.

In March this year, Janata Bank signed an agreement with the Bangladesh Lather Sector Business Promot- ion Council (BLBPC) to provide loan facility without collateral and sanctioned 70 million facilitating the small investors, the news release added.

Mohammad Zillur Rahman, deputy managing director of Janata Bank, who was also present at the function, said the bank will provide loan facility for over 2,000 small industries situated in the old part of the city.

Source: Daily-Sun

The central bank yesterday capped the call money rate at 50 percent to ease money market volatility.

“Bangladesh Bank has directed us verbally to maintain the rate until further instruction,” said a fund manager of a private bank.

But top bankers questioned the rationale for the ceiling, which they believe too high compared to bank rates.

The call money market witnessed abrupt swings for the past two weeks and soared 180 percent on Sunday.

Bankers had been demanding central bank intervention, but it kept mum for what Bangladesh Bank (BB) officials said curbing the inflationary pressure by reducing money flow into the market.

“I don't know on what logic the central bank has set the ceiling at 50 percent. Still, the rate will contribute to increasing the cost of fund,” said a private bank chief executive officer.

The CEO said some banks borrowed money and lent at higher rates. He suggested a probe by the central bank.

Anis A Khan, managing director of Mutual Trust Bank, however, welcomed the BB move, which he said would help cool down the market.

The central bank has given Tk 7,825 crore through repo yesterday to help banks meet demand for cash, said Mizanur Rahman Zodder, BB's general manager.

Source: The Daily Star

Twenty Two (22) organizations of Bangladesh won the tenth Institute of Chartered Accounts of Bangladesh (ICAB) award this year. Based on the accounts and reports of several organizations, published in 2009, ICAB has awarded this award to Bank, non-bank, production, IT and non-governmental organizations. This ceremony took place yesterday evening in the Sheraton Hotel of the capital.

Mr. Abul Mal Abdul Muhit was present in the ceremony as a chief guest. ICAB chair Mr. Jamaluddin Ahmed, assistant chair Mr. Shahjahan Majumder and the chair of evaluation committee Mr. Abu Sayeed delivered their speech to the audience. Finance minister Mr. Abul Mal Abdul Muhit said that several organizations are doing well in making accounts report. He also said that such transparency is needed where money is related. Jamal Uddin Ahmed informed that since 2001 ICBA is presenting this award. As a result organizations put emphasizes on improving economic review of their organizations. This helps to attract foreign investors and make them interested to invest in our country.

Finance Minister distributed crest and certificates to the Chief Executives and senior officers of the organizations, present in the program.

Awarded Organizations in Bank Category: Prime Bank (1st), Eastern Bank (2^nd) and Dutch-Bangla Bank (3rd). Premier Bank, BRAC Bank and National Bank also won the honorary award in the same category. In the non-Banking category Green Delta and Reliance Insurance won the award. Prime Finance and Investment Limited, IDLC and Lanka Bangla also got the award in the same category. In the production sector Glaxo Smith Cline Bangladesh Limited became first. Singer and ACI won the second and third prize.

GrameenPhone was awarded in the communication and IT sector and BRAC became first in the NGO category where Sajeda Foundation and Bureau Bangladesh and Uddipon became second and third. Agrani Bank got this award from Governmental organization. Agrani Bank and Prime Bank also won prizes for corporate discipline and good administration.        

 News Source: Prothom Alo/20 Dec 2010