Bangladesh Bank Governor Atiur Rahman yesterday advised the newly approved banks to avoid “aggressive” banking, reports BSS.
“The banks should not do hurry in appointing manpower, opening new branches, collecting deposit, distributing loan and carrying out other activities for good business ... hurriedness would push them (banks) into difficulties, which would be hard to overcome,” he added. The governor made the advice during separate meetings with the nine banks that got approval.
Atiur told them (banks) to concentrate on doing good business instead of only putting emphasis on extending coverage.
BB Deputy Governor SK Sur Chowdhury, executive directors SM Moniruzzaman, Nawshad Ali Chowdhury and Saiful Islam and managing directors of concerned banks were present at the meetings.

Provisions for Ananda Shipyard's bad loans have been eating up Islami Bank Bangladesh's profits as it had to set aside Tk 178 crore a year since 2013 for the shipbuilder's bad debts.

“We are not too worried now as we have been able to make a two-year provision against the loans. We have one more year to go in the three-year provision requirement for this bad debt,” MA Mannan, managing director of IBBL, told The Daily Star.

“We will be free after this year.” Ananda has not been able to sell the ships funded by the bank.

“Ships are not perishable. So Ananda may take more time to sell the ships,” said the chief executive of the bank whose profits have been eroding since 2012.

Earlier in 2007, Ananda Group received orders from German and Singaporean buyers for eight ships worth $89.4 million or about Tk 700 crore, to be delivered between September 2009 and December 2010.

The local shipbuilder failed to stick to the lead time, which made the buyers withdraw the orders in 2010.

The move put its financier -- IBBL -- in a sticky position, as it had to honour its performance bonds and refund guarantees worth $58.71 million to the buyers.

Ananda's total liabilities with IBBL now stand at Tk 534 crore, and the central bank instructed the bank to make provisions against the sum, which IBBL has duly acted on, Mannan said.

The bank's earnings per share (EPS) came down to almost half between 2012 and 2014 because of bad loans, especially of Ananda Shipyard.

The bank's EPS was Tk 4.42 in 2012, which came down to Tk 3.45 in 2013 and Tk 2.46 in 2014 -- this erosion in income has been depriving the shareholders of good dividends.

IBBL paid 32 percent dividends for 2011, 25 percent for 2012, 18 percent for 2013 and 15 percent for 2014.

In response to a query on whether IBBL is facing trouble in accepting its letters of credit (LCs) by some banks in the United States and Europe, the chief executive said the bank's data does not reflect that.

IBBL is the top bank in terms of the number of LCs issued and volume of imports, he said.

The bank facilitated imports worth Tk 31,697 crore in 2014 and issued LCs for imports worth Tk 7,985 crore in the first quarter of the current year, up by 7 percent from the same period in the previous year.

Bank Asia has re-elected Mohd Safwan Choudhury and AM Nurul Islam Anu as vice chairmen, the bank said in a statement.

Choudhury is a former president of Sylhet Chamber of Commerce and the managing director of M Ahmed Tea and Lands Company, Phulbaria Tea Estates, M Ahmed Cold Storage, Premier Dyeing and Calendaring and M Ahmed Food and Spices, according to the statement.  

He also serves Bangladesh Tea Association as chairman and Friends in Village Development Bangladesh as president.

Anu is the chairman of the board risk management committee and a financial adviser to Opex group, the bank said. 

He previously worked as chairman of Bank Asia's audit committee for three years and also sat on the board of National Bank. He is a former teacher of Dhaka University.

Bangladesh Bank has asked banks not to open letters of credit for duty-free import of industrial raw materials under bonded warehouse system in favour of the businesspeople who do not have licence or renew them from the Customs Bond Commissionerate. The BB on Monday issued a letter to managing directors and chief executive officers of all banks in line with directions given by the Customs Bond Commissionerate asking them (banks) to take required measures in this regard to tackle duty dodging. A BB official told New Age on Monday that the Customs Bond Commissionerate had issued a letter to the central bank on March 25, requesting it to ensure the government revenue as some banks frequently opened LCs for the duty-free back-to-back imports in favour of some businesspeople who did not have licence. The Customs Bond Commissionerate offered the licence for due-free raw material imports to the businesspeople who use the products to produce export-oriented goods, he said. But, some businesspeople sell the imported raw materials in the local market without using the products to produce the export-oriented goods, the official said. The Customs Bond Commissionerate in its letter said that it had already created a web site in which the list of the licence-holders, who are considered to enjoy the duty-free facility, was attached. The banks should follow the web site before opening the letters of credit for the duty-free imports, the letter said. Besides, the banks will have to issue Proceed Realisation Certificate after ensuring the export worth’s repatriation, the Customs Bond Commissionerate said. The banks give the certificate to the exporters after they repatriate the worth of the exported products to the country, the BB official said. Some banks, however, provide the certificate without ensuring the repatriation worth of the exported products, he said. The Customs Bond Commissionerate earlier suspended a number of licences of the businesspeople as they were found selling the back-to-back imported-products in the local market after enjoying the duty-free facility illegally. For this reason, the Customs Bond Commissionerate has also attached the list of businesspeople with its web site whose licences were earlier cancelled or suspended. The central bank earlier unearthed that some persons patronised by the ruling parties had managed the licence to enjoy the duty-free import although they had not played any role in export-oriented business, the BB official said. ‘After selling the products in the local market, the persons never went for any import again meaning that they did so just to evade the duty’, he said. The central bank will take punitive measures against the banks which will open such type of LCs to facilitate the businesspeople illegally, the central banker said. 

Anurag Mathur, HSBC's head of international retail banking and wealth management for Asia Pacific, will arrive in Dhaka for a two-day visit today. 
He will meet a number of the bank's clients, stakeholders and local colleagues during his visit, HSBC said in a statement yesterday.  
Mathur is currently responsible for over eight markets in Asia Pacific region, including Bangladesh, Brunei, Macau, Mauritius, New Zealand, the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Vietnam, it said. 
He joined HSBC in Hong Kong in 2009, and has also served as the regional head of business performance in retail banking and wealth management in Asia Pacific.