Doris Honold, group chief operating officer of Standard Chartered Bank, is in Dhaka for a short visit and scheduled to meet senior government officials and the bank's staff and clients.

Aalishaan Zaidi, chief operating officer for retail banking at Standard Chartered Bank, is accompanying Honold, the bank said in a statement yesterday.

Honold in her professional capacity supports the group chief executive in defining and executing the business strategy, reinforcing control and governance, ensuring strategic functional alignment and enabling business growth through efficiency.

She has also served as the group head of market risk and chief operating officer for wholesale banking. 

“Representation from our group management team is a sign of our commitment to the Bangladesh franchise and underscores the potential we see in this market,” said Abrar A Anwar, CEO of Standard Chartered Bangladesh. 

Banks have rushed to install anti-skimming devices and PIN shields at their automated teller machines to meet the central bank's deadline of March 15 for deploying such gadgets to protect their customers from fraudsters.

The banks will have to assess the effectiveness of the solutions as well.

The Bangladesh Bank directive came after four ATMs of three banks were skimmed off by local and international fraudsters between February 6 and February 12 in Dhaka.

The ATM skimming, which was unprecedented in Bangladesh, cost the banks over Tk 25 lakh and dented the confidence of ATM users.

“We have received letters from 22 banks that want to install anti-skimming devices in their ATMs,” said Kazi Saifuddin Munir, managing director of IT Consultants that owns the country's biggest payment processing consortium, Q-Cash. It has about 3,000 ATMs in its network for its 33 client banks.

Munir praised the banks' move to deploy anti-skimming devices and PIN shields as a positive development that will strengthen the security measures in ATMs.

An anti-skimming device protects a card from being skimmed off by fraudsters and the PIN shield makes it more difficult for them to capture the cardholder's PIN with the miniature camera that they install on the ATM fascia.

An average anti-skimming device costs up to Tk 25,000; the best-quality one will cost around Tk 80,000. A PIN shield costs Tk 1,000-Tk 2,000.

Presently, there are around 7,500 ATMs, of which, 3,000 already have anti-skimming devices, according to the BB.

Dutch-Bangla Bank, which has the largest network of ATMs with nearly 3,700 machines, has also advertised in the newspapers about deploying anti-skimming devices and PIN shields in all its ATMs.  But it will not be possible for the banks to install the devices in all machines by the BB-given deadline of one month.

“We have just advertised for procuring anti-skimming devices and PIN shields. It will take time to finish the installation,” said Abul Kashem Mohammad Shirin, deputy managing director of Dutch-Bangla Bank.

Eastern Bank Ltd, which was one of the three victim banks of the recent ATM frauds, also took measures to install such devices.

“Anti-skimming devices were supposed to be in-built in our ATMs as per work order given to the vendor. We have asked the vendor to reply in this regard,” said Ziaul Karim, head of communications at EBL.

Karim said his bank has already moved to deploy PIN shields in all ATMs by the BB-given time. However, bankers said it is clear that the magnetic stripe on payment cards is the underlying cause of the persistent threat to skimming and data compromise at the ATMs.

They said the payment card should be EMV-equipped to reduce the risk of frauds.

On the time extension, Shubhankar Saha, executive director and spokesman of the BB, said if a bank can legitimise that it needs more time, the central bank will consider it.

According to the ATM Security Association, a global network of manufacturers, suppliers and services providers, the global cost of ATM skimming is estimated to be over $2 billion annually.

It said skimming represents 98 percent of all ATM fraud losses.

Skimming losses in Europe rose 14 percent to $343.5 million in 2014 -- the highest since 2009 -- despite a 3 percent decrease in the actual number of skimming incidents.

The average cost of a skimming incident rose 18 percent in 2014 from the previous year to approximately $61,000.

With all ATMs in Europe now being EMV compliant, organised crime has shifted outside its borders.

The association in a paper said card data is skimmed in one country and then used for fraudulent ATM withdrawals in another.

It found 87 percent of all losses in Europe in 2014 were generated from cross-border fraud. The top cross-border locations for European card losses are the US, Indonesia and Philippines.

‘The downward trend of lending rate had played a role in boosting credit growth to 14.19% in December last year, which was high in three years’

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is considering funding over US$ 5.0 billion for the country's road and metro-rail development in the next five years. Of the total fund, about $3.0 billion is likely to be spent on three projects in the road sector for increasing regional connectivity, and over $2.0 billion for setting up metro-rail in the city. An ADB mission shared these in its action plan in a meeting with Road Transport and Highways Division officials on Monday. The meeting was held to review the ADB-funded transport sector portfolio performance. Road Division secretary M A N Siddique chaired the meeting, attended by the six-member ADB mission. Hiroshi Yamaguchi, transport and communication director, South Asia Department, led the ADB team. The meeting observed satisfactory progress in all ongoing projects and those in the pipeline. These projects include additional funding for road development under South Asian Sub Regional Economic Cooperation (SASEC) project II and III, and Dhaka-Chittagong expressway. Each of these projects will get at least $1.0 billion ADB fund. Setting up multimodal transport hub near Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport is also on the cards. Sources said ADB has already taken a technical assistance project to fund metro-rail in the city. However, the secretary informed the mission that it would take time to approve the metro-rail project, as its revised strategic transport plan is not yet approved. Under SASEC II, Roads and Highways Department (RHD) has already made progress in the four-lane project from Tangail to Elenga. The development project proposal for the highway from Hatikumrul to Rangpur was also under process of getting approval. ADB is likely to fund the project under SASEC III. The mission informed the officials that a technical assistance loan is in the pipeline for preparing design and support tendering process in 2017, $1.0 billion for the first phase investment during 2018-19, and $1.0 billion for second phase. The mission also guided the government to start land acquisition and procurement for SASEC road II project and ensure high protection readiness for the pipeline projects. The Road Division secretary said the government has requested the mission to include other part of the SASEC road connectivity after Rangpur and Dhaka-Sylhet four-lane project, as good progress has been made in both cases. He said the meeting with the ADB team was a regular meeting. The government will request the development bank to assist those projects, which it will find important for the country.

Bangladesh Bank Governor Dr Atiur Rahman Monday put thrust on inclusive economic growth through creating a dynamic economic platform. The BB governor was addressing the launching ceremony of a new non-banking financial institution, CAPM Venture Capital and Finance Ltd. It is the 33rd NBFI in the country. Dr Atiur Rahman expressed his optimism that the new NBFI with a Tk 1.05 billion paid-up capital will play a significant role to mobilize fund for industrialization. He said Bangladesh will reach the 8.0 per cent GDP growth trajectory with the active participation of all new and old Financial Institutions (FIs). BB deputy governor SK Sur Chowdhury, chairman of Bangladesh Leasing and Finance Companies Association Mafizuddin and chairman of CAPM CAPM Venture Capital and Finance Ltd., Mahmud Hossain were also present on the occasion. The company officials said the new company will facilitate creating new entrepreneurship through providing some unique services, according to a statement.