Remittances recovered slightly in February with a 0.85 percent gain year-on-year, according to Bangladesh Bank.

The country received $1.18 billion in the second month of 2015, up from $1.17 billion in February last year, according to the provisional figures released by the central bank yesterday.

February receipts are, however, the lowest in the last four months.

Bangladesh received $9.9 billion in the first eight months of the current fiscal year, up 7.6 percent over the same period a year ago.

Experts said migrant workers are worried about the political upheaval since January 6, prompting them to hold back from sending in money.

Sent by more than eight million migrant workers, remittance plays a key role in reducing the overall incidence of poverty in the country as well as helping the country maintain a healthy balance of payments.

If the migrant workers continue to send in money as they have done so far, Bangladesh may receive $15 billion this fiscal year.

The country received nearly $14.23 billion in remittance in the last fiscal year, down from fiscal 2012-13's $14.46 billion.

It is now possible to make up for the negative growth after Saudi Arabia's decision to reopen its labour market to migrant workers from Bangladesh after a six-year bar, a central bank official said.

Saudi Arabia is home to more than 15 lakh migrant workers from Bangladesh, the country's largest destination for workers. Riyadh's refusal to take in Bangladeshi workers in the last six years had led to a decline in overall labour migration.

Md Hashem Chowdhury was promoted to the post of additional managing director of Mutual Trust Bank on Sunday, the bank said in a statement yesterday.

He was serving as the deputy managing director prior to the promotion, it added.

He has also worked as the chief operating officer and CAMLCO of the bank previously, as well as being responsible for MTB's Dhaka division branches, banking operations division, infrastructure division, engineering department, special asset management division, credit monitoring department, and legal department. Chowdhury began his banking career with Janata Bank in 1981. He joined MTB as a member of its founding team in 1999.

The 1015th meeting of the Board of Directors of Pubali Bank Limited was held recently at its head office in the city. Hafiz Ahmed Mazumder, Chairman, Board of Directors of of the bank presided over the meeting which recommended 10 per cent cash dividend.

Islami Bank Bangladesh Limited and Accuity, the leading global anti-money laundering (AML) compliance solutions provider signed an agreement on Real Time Anti Money Laundering Screening Solution Sunday at Islami Bank Tower in presence of Engr. Mustafa Anwar, Chairman (Acting), Engr. Md. Eskander Ali Khan, Chairman, Executive Committee and Mohammad Abdul Mannan, Managing Director and CEO of Islami Bank Bangladesh Limited.

Islami Bank Bangladesh Limited and Accuity, a UK-based anti-money laundering (AML) compliance solutions provider signed an agreement Sunday at Islami Bank Tower in Dhaka.

The implementation enables the holistic management of real-time screening and compliance programs for Islami Bank at enterprise-wide level.  

In presence of Engr. Mustafa Anwar, Chairman (Acting), Engr. Md. Eskander Ali Khan, Chairman, Executive Committee and Mohammad Abdul Mannan, Managing Director and CEO of Islami Bank Bangladesh Limited the agreement was signed between Abdus Sadeque Bhuiyan, Executive Vice President and DCAMLCO of Islami Bank and Sean Norris, Asia Pacific Director of Accuity. Senior Executives of Islami Bank and officials from Accuity were also present on the occasion.

“Islami Bank is the first bank in the country to integrate real-time screening solutions with its core banking system,” said a statement.

This also marks Accuity's first Compliance Link solution implementation in the market and the continued commitment to this rapidly developing financial sector in Asia.

Engr. Mustafa Anwar, Chairman (Acting) of Islami Bank said that the IBBL has formulated a culture of compliance of all regulatory authorities.

The continued development of technology playing remarkable contribution in banking sector. Such efforts are part of this culture. He expected success of the technology in anti money laundering solution.

Mohammad Abdul Mannan, Managing Director and CEO of Islami Bank said, "The addition of Accuity's Compliance Link solution will improve the speed and efficiency of our customer accounts screening, SWIFT Payments and NRB remittances screening against UN, OFAC, and EU Sanctions reducing manual identification process of match type by over 50%.

Accuity's flexible and scalable filtering solution, combined with their accurate data and expertise, will allow us to centralise, automate and streamline our screening processes to ensure compliance with AML regulations, reduce risk and increase operational efficiency."

Sean Norris, APAC Director at Accuity said: "This is an important development in anti-money laundering compliance in Bangladesh's evolving banking sector, with Islami Bank leading the way by adopting a risk-based approach to help reduce risk and drive efficiencies.

Accuity's Compliance Link is a flexible platform that offers one-stop solution for all AML screening needs.

World Bank has postponed Dhaka visit of its macro forecasting support mission as the country gets struck in the political standoff.

The visit of Analytical and Advisory Activities (AAA) mission was aimed at advising the government on revision of current fiscal year budget and also preparation of next fiscal budget.

The mission was scheduled to arrive today and stay till March 5.

World Bank’s Dhaka office has already conveyed the development to the Economic Relations Division.

Quoting World Bank sources, an ERD official said once stability was restored in Bangladesh politics, the WB mission would visit Bangladesh soon. 

But State Minister for Finance MA Mannan denied the political unrest as reason behind the suspension of the visit though he refrained from citing “the real cause” behind.

“Political unrest is not the cause. There is a different reason for suspension of the WB team’s visit.”

The main objective of the mission was to assist the government in developing a macro forecasting model to provide inputs in the preparation of medium-term macroeconomic framework underpinning the annual budget.

Sources in the Finance Division said the size of the revised budget for the current fiscal year might finally stand at Tk2,40,000 crore, down by nearly Tk10,000 crore from the original one.

 Finance Minister AMA Muhith initially estimated the next fiscal year budget outlay at Tk2,92,000 crore, over 16% bigger than the current outlay. The size of the budget has been increasing every year. 

In fiscal 2005-06, the size of the budget was Tk61,000 crore which rose to Tk2,51,000 crore. 

The WB mission was also to advise on ensuring more efficient use of government exchequers.

The proposed WB team would comprise the Bank’s lead economist Zahid Hussain, economists Faya Hayati, Cristina Savesco, training expert Afroza Alam and Kamrun Nahar Chowdhury. The team was supposed to meet top officials of finance ministry and Bangladesh Bank.

In 2006, the then World Bank country director Christina Wallich left Dhaka fearing of bomb attack by Islamic outfit Jamatul Mujahideen Bangladesh during BNP-led four-party alliance regime.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said blockade had caused a loss of over Tk1,20,000 crore in the first 52 days.