Deutsche Bank, Germany's biggest lender, is considering selling its stake in Chinese group Hua Xia Bank and divesting its retail banking activities in India, the business daily Handelsblatt reported on Wednesday.

Deutsche Bank spent a total 1.3 billion euros ($1.4 billion) in amassing a stake of nearly 20 percent in Hua Xia Bank between 2006 and 2010, the newspaper said.

That stake is now worth around 3.3 billion euros, but no formal decision to sell it has been taken at this stage, Handelsblatt said.

Deutsche Bank is also considering selling its retail activities in India, where it currently has 17 branches.

The central bank is set to make the overall activities of its export development fund (EDF) online shortly to facilitate the country's exporters for boosting their business activities, officials said.

Forex Reserve and Treasury Management Department of the Bangladesh Bank (BB) has already installed software to provide services like receiving application and sending payment advice promptly to the exporters through their banks concerned.

The central bank has taken the latest initiative following discussion on awareness building about the EDF with representatives of the country's leading trade bodies including the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI), Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BKMEA) and Bangladesh Textile Mills Association (BTMA) recently.

 "We're working to introduce automated system instead of the existing manual one to provide such refinancing fund to the exporters smoothly," a BB senior official told the FE Wednesday.

He also said the central bank has already discussed with the exporters how to become popular the fund.

 "We want to provide the short-term liquidity support to small exporters along with the larger ones," the central bank official explained.

Earlier on May 27 last, the BB increased the allocation for the EDF by more than 33.33 per cent to US$ 2.0 billion from $ 1.5 billion earlier to meet the growing demand of the country's exporters.

Currently, the exporters are allowed to get such foreign currency loan with paying at the London Inter-bank Offered Rate (LIBOR) plus 2.50 per cent interest.

Under the existing provisions, the EDF financing is allowed for input procurements against back-to-back import letters of credit (LCs) or inland back-to-back LCs in foreign exchange, by manufactures producing final output for direct export and also by producers of local deliveries to manufacturers of the final export.

The EDF loans from the central bank are payable by the banks upon receipt of exports proceeds within 180 days from the date of disbursement, extendable by the BB up to 270 days in case of a longer period for repatriation of export proceeds.

Pubali Bank Ltd launched VISA Credit Card Wednesday. Hafiz Ahmed Mazumder, Chairman, Board of Directors of Pubali Bank Ltd launched the product as Chief Guest. Managing Director Md Abdul Halim Chowdhury presided over the ceremony.

Two private commercial banks (Dutch-Bangla Bank and BRAC Bank) Wednesday signed an agreement with Election Commission to have effective NID verification services in the country.

Addressing the signing ceremony on the day, Bangladesh Bank Governor Atiur Rahman said Election Commission may consider providing the NID verification services access via Bangladesh Bank that will reduce to only one/two network connectivity for all banks and financial institutions.

"It will also help Election Commission to manage ICT security effectively. Election Commission may review existing rules and regulations to consider this," the BB Governor said.

He said to provide this NID verification service to all banks and financial institutions, Election Commission will have to manage multiple network connectivity from multiple service providers and to maintain uninterrupted 24x7 service.

With the signing of this agreement, banks will be able to verify NID submitted by the account holders for account opening, loans, etc. This verification will authenticate individuals and ensure transparent financial transactions. Frauds and forgery will be drastically reduced. Quality of financial services will be increased. Financial Intelligence Unit and Credit Information Bureau will be able to provide better services to the economy.

"I hope banks will verify NIDs of their existing and upcoming customers (account holders and bearers) regularly and that will reduce time taken for KYC. And ultimately this will ensure transparency in transactions in every aspects. I also hope during mobile bank account opening and mobile transactions they will expand this service with mobile application or mobile USSD (Unstructured Supplementary Service Data) services," Dr Atiur said.

He said internal and external security and services availability are now an important challenge for ICT professionals. Banks and financial institutions are working hard to mitigate threats and risks in this area.

"We declared our vision "Digital Bangladesh Bank" and we have already shown our commitment by digitizing and modernizing our payment system. We have taken necessary initiatives to introduce RTGS (Real Time Gross Settlement) System which will be completed by this year," the BB Governor said.

"We do believe that Bangladesh will be a role model for mobile financial services globally if the positive trend continues. Agent Banking model also started operation recently to enable and broaden our financial inclusion initiatives. Bangladesh Bank is working with state owned commercial banks to implement core banking solution and hope that all the state owned commercial bank branches will have to use core banking solution by 2016," Dr Atiur mentioned.

Introducing these IT-driven services, Bangladesh Bank has increased the productivity of employees, changed supervision from reactive to proactive, introduced near real time internal control and compliance, encouraged green banking adaptation etc.