Business Desk :Islami Bank Bangladesh Limited (IBBL) has been ranked among the top 1000 banks of the world as the sole bank of the country, says a press release.The Bank's position is now 954th in 2015 based on the strength of Tier-1 capital progressing 46 steps in three years. In 2012, 2013 and 2014, the Bank's position was 1000th, 984th and 970th respectively. Besides, the bank has been ranked as 70th, 250th, 791st and 785th considering the return on capital, return on assets, capital assets ratio and amount of assets of the Bank respectively.UK based century-old magazine 'The Banker' has been conducting rating of the top 1000 world banks setting the industry benchmark since 1790 providing comprehensive intelligence about the health and wealth of the banking sector. The magazine publishes the list in July every year on the basis of data and evaluation of more than 5 thousand leading banks from 163 countries, which is appreciated and recognized worldwide.By securing this position, IBBL has got recognition as a global standard bank and brought glory for Bangladesh. This prestigious ranking signifies the strength and progress of financial sector of the country.

Bangladesh Bank has so far disbursed Tk 14,000 crore under refinance schemes, including the Export Development Fund.

As of June 6, Tk 443 crore has been disbursed by the state-owned commercial banks and Tk 8,291 crore by the private banks.

The foreign banks gave out Tk 1,207 crore and the specialised banks Tk 4,058 crore, according to data from the central bank.

Another statistics of the central bank showed that except the EDF fund the banks have disbursed Tk 4,822 crore until June 30 through various refinance schemes to 47,988 enterprises.

Besides, EDF has been raised to $2 billion in May from its initial $100 million in 2006. A BB official said its size has been raised significantly as its demand rose in the last three years.

The demand increased as its rate of interest is low. At present, the rate of interest is Libor plus 2 percent.

The BB official said the borrowers can take loans from other refinance schemes with single digit interest rates, whereas the average interest rate for loans from the banking sector is 12 percent.

Women customers usually do not get loans from banks, but with the refinance scheme the BB is reaching out to them.

As of June 30, a total of 12,251 women entrepreneurs have been given Tk 1,109 crore loans through the refinance schemes.

The central bank's promotion of socially responsible-inclusive financing is upholding adequacy of credit flows to farm, non-farm productive, micro, small and medium scale enterprises (MSMEs), Bangladesh Bank Governor Atiur Rahman told The Daily Star. Those segments are typically underserved or overlooked by traditional banking.

MSMEs supported this way are generating incremental output on the supply side, alongside employment and income on the demand side, augmenting the GDP growth and speeding up poverty decline.

In 2014, 24.3 percent of the country's population were below the upper poverty line, down from 31.5 percent in 2010, according to the finance ministry estimates.

Thanks to the central bank initiative, 1.65 crore new no-frills bank accounts have been opened since 2009 in the names of unbanked low-income population segments.

A Tk 200 crore refinance scheme has been formed for giving loans to this segment of population through the no-frills bank accounts. But the banks are yet to give a single taka loan through this programme, the BB official said.

In the upcoming monetary policy for the current fiscal year, due to be announced on July 30, various steps will be taken to force the banks to give loans from the refinance schemes.

The central bank is set to take out another $200 million refinance scheme this year, from which loans will be given to green transitional export-oriented enterprises.

About Tk 4,000 crore has been disbursed through Bangladesh Krishi Bank (BKB) and Rajshahi Krishi Unnayan Bank (Rakub), and the central bank conducted a study on this.

The objective of the study was to find the impact of the refinance schemes by comparing the economic well-being of those who have taken loans from BKB and Rakub with those who have not.

The economic conditions, in terms of assets, income and surplus income, have proved that the group farmers that have taken loans from the two state organisations are in a better position than the others.

About 98 percent of the target group farmers agreed that they have been benefited from agricultural credit of BKB and Rakub.

Two listed banks saw healthy earnings growth in the first half of 2015 despite political unrest in the first quarter and a cut in lending rates.

Islami Bank's net profits more than trebled, while Prime Bank's net profits more than doubled between January and June, compared to the same period a year ago.

Islami Bank logged in Tk 339.52 crore in net profits, up from Tk 97.41 crore a year earlier, the bank said in a filing to Dhaka Stock Exchange yesterday.

But the rise in profits failed to strengthen investor confidence enough to chase after the bank's securities, which brought down its share prices by 2.62 percent.

On the premier bourse, each share of the bank traded between Tk 21.3 and Tk 25.1, before closing at Tk 22.9.

Prime Bank's net profits stood at Tk 216.99 crore at the end of June, up from Tk 101.19 crore a year ago.

The declaration also impressed the investors and led them to take positions in the bank's securities, leading to a 9.71 percent rise in its share prices.

The bank's shares traded between Tk 17.5 and Tk 19.2 each, before closing at Tk 19.2.

Although the lending rate has been cut, export-import started gaining momentum as political stability has been restored and the private sector credit growth is also on a gradual rise, analysts said.

The average lending rate was 11.82 percent in May, down from 13.23 percent in the same month last year, according to Bangladesh Bank.

On the other hand, private sector credit growth rose to 13.27 percent at the end of April from 12.27 percent in June last year.

BEXIMCO PHARMA

Beximco Pharmaceuticals' net profits rose 39.34 percent year-on-year in the first half of the year.

The listed drug manufacturer logged in Tk 100.91 crore in profits between January and June, up from Tk 72.42 crore in the same period a year ago.

The sharp earnings growth is attributable to a one-off tax adjustment in the second quarter. Last month, the government lowered the corporate tax rate for all listed companies, except telecoms and tobacco, to 25 percent from 27.5 percent.

Since the tax filing for last year is made in July 2015, there is a one-off retrospective tax adjustment for all previous quarters (Jan-Mar of 2015) during which the company was charged higher tax, said Brac-EPL Stock Brokerage, a security analyst. So the company's income tax provisioning exceeded its actual expense of Tk 21.91 crore by Tk 2.2 crore in the second quarter this year compared to the same quarter in 2014, it said.

The company also reported a 17.4 percent increase in turnover with a 15.4 percent rise in domestic market and 64 percent in export sales. Gross margin went down marginally but lower operating expense eventually improved the operating margin of the company.

Share prices of the Beximco Pharma rose 1.84 percent to Tk 66.3.

HEIDELBERG CEMENT

Heidelberg Cement's net profits also rose 5.1 percent in the first half of 2015.

The cement manufacturer's net profits stood at Tk 84.61 crore at the end of June this year, up from Tk 81.7 crore a year earlier.

Share price of the company however fell 5.16 percent to Tk 637.7.