Mutual Trust Bank Ltd. (MTB) has recently handed over a cheque for BDT 4 lac to Assistance for Blind Children (ABC) as the annual educational expenses of ten (10) blind children living in the ABC dormitories, issued in a press release. Md. Hashem Chowdhury, Additional Managing Director & Chief Anti-Money Laundering Compliance Officer (CAMLCO), MTB, handed over the cheque to Prof. Dr. Md. Saleh Uddin, President, ABC, at a simple ceremony held at the bank’s MTB Centre at Gulshan 1, Dhaka. K M Zainul Abedin, General Secretary, Munira Khan, Treasurer and Aftab ul Islam, Convener Fund Raising and EC Member, ABC Quamrul Islam Chowdhury, MTB Deputy Managing Director and Group Company Secretary, Md. Zakir Hussain, Deputy Managing Director & Group Chief Risk Officer, MTB, along with other senior officials of both the organizations were also present at the occasion.

Xinhua: CANBERRA: Growth in Australian bank lending to China has slowed after a period of accelerated expansion as foreign banks take a more cautious approach.
Australian media reported Monday that the annual growth rate of Australian bank exposure to China dropped 10 per cent last year from a high of 70 per cent in 2013. Data from the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) showed that in the December quarter, the banks' exposure dropped 700 million US dollars to 33.7 billion US dollars.
The surge in international lending to China over the past few years, that was primarily driven by lending to banks, was experiencing a global slowdown, the BIS report said.
"Claims on China contracted by 51 billion US dollars in the fourth quarter of 2014, bringing down their year-on-year growth rate to 21 per cent from 40 per cent at end September 2014," the 
report said.
Across emerging Asia-Pacific nations, cross-border lending increased by 214 billion US dollars last year, with Indonesia leading the charge with 19 per cent growth.

Bangladesh Bank on Sunday approved another non-bank financial institution aiming to attract venture capital, said central bank officials. The decision came at a meeting of the BB’s board of directors at the central bank headquarters in the capital with BB governor Atiur Rahman in the chair. The approved NBFI is Alliance Leasing and Finance Ltd. BB officials said the central bank had approved the NBFI on political consideration as the ruling party-backed people are behind its ownership. Besides, some investors of Sri Lanka will also be involved in the new NBFI. The BB board has decided to issue letters of intent to approve the NBFI, giving it a period of six months to comply with the existing rules and regulations for setting up new financial institution, central bank deputy governor SK Sur Chowdhuray told New Age on Sunday. The BB will issue licence to the NBFI after its proper compliance with all conditions, he said, adding that loan defaulters and tax evaders would not be allowed to become the directors of the new financial institution, he said. The authorities concerned of the approved NBFI will have to deposit the amount of their paid-up capital worth Tk 100 crore with the central bank, before starting its operation, another BB official said. The central bank issued letters of intents on March 5, 2014 to two more NBFIs namely CAPM Venture Capital Finance and Meridian Finance Investment on political consideration. The BB asked the two institutions to comply with the rules and regulations by six months to get licences from the central bank. But, the two institutions are yet to fulfil the rules and regulation resulting that they did not get the licences yet, the BB official said. Currently, 31 NBFIs are running their businesses in the country.

The first Managers Conference 2015 participated by all Managers of Mymensingh Region of Pubali Bank Limited was held recently to motivate them to increase Bank’s business by rendering better services, reports in a press release. Md. Abdul Halim Chowdhury, Managing Director of Pubali Bank Ltd. graced the conference as Chief Guest. Deputy Managing Director Safiul Alam Khan Chowdhury and Chief Financial Officer & General Manager Sayeed Ahmed FCA were present as Special Guests. DGM and RM of Mymensingh region Jagot Chandra Saha presided over the conference.
In his speech Chief Guest Md. Abdul Halim Chowdhury emphasized on expansion of foreign remittance business through better customer & modern banking service. He also advised all to work hard, look for new business avenues and adopt diversification and to take concerted efforts for achieving the target fixed for the year 2015.Managing Director Md. Abdul Halim Chowdhury stressed on selection of potential borrower and try to enhance bank business. He emphasised on recovery of overdue, classified and writes off loan on priority basis. He advised branch managers to keep close vigilence so that newly disbursed loans may not become overdue or classified by intensive supervision and close monitoring of the loan.
In his speech Safiul Alam Khan Chowdhury advised all to work hard to increase remittance rendering best customer services. He underscored the need for increased utilization of the modern Information Techninlogy for qualitative improvement in the overall customer service of Pubali Bank Limited as the bank has to operate in a highly competitive Banking sector.
Performance of the branches also evaluated in the meeting and necessary strategy and plans were taken to achieve the target fixed for the year 2015.

National Bank  Training Institute has recently conducted a week long training course titled ‘Managers Induction Course’ for newly posted branch managers and for the executives and officers, who have the potentialities for becoming branch managers, issued in a press release. Shamsul Huda Khan, Managing Director and CEO of National Bank Limited was present in the closing ceremony of the course as the chief guest and distributed certificates among the participants. A total number of 38 executives and officers of different grades of the bank attended the course as participants.

Jahangir Bin Hamid, Senior Vice President and Head of Human Resources Division of the bank, Md. Majibur Rahman, Principal of the Training Institute, Hari Narayan Das and Farzana Haque, Sr. Faculties were present among others at the inaugural and closing ceremony.