Third from right, Md Ahsan-uz Zaman, managing director of Midland Bank, attends the launch of the bank's five new deposit products and Visa branded credit card, at the bank's head office in Dhaka yesterday. Photo: Midland Bank

Midland Bank yesterday came up with five new deposit products along with Visa branded credit card.

The credit card (platinum and gold) and the deposit products—MDB Super Saver, MDB College Saver, MDB School Saver, MDB Probashi Savings and MDB Gift Cheque—were launched at a programme at the bank's head office in Dhaka.

At the programme, the bank's managing director, Md Ahsan-uz Zaman, presented the features of the new and existing deposit products, according to a statement.

The bank will continue bringing more customised, friendly and attractive products to offer better services to customers, Zaman said. Khondoker Nayeemul Kabir, deputy managing director, was also present.

The banking sector's net profit dropped around 17 percent year-on-year in 2014 to Tk 5,993 crore on the back of mounting bad loans which necessitated large provisioning.

The banks last year made operational profit of Tk 21,265 crore, from which Tk 9,037 crore was deducted as tax and Tk 6,238 crore as provisioning against bad loans, according to central bank statistics.

Of the 56 banks, UK-based Standard Chartered Bank recorded the highest profits last year: their operating profit was Tk 1,742 crore and net profit Tk 1,098 crore.

Another foreign bank, HSBC, came in the second position with their net profit of Tk 579 crore and operating profit of Tk 969 crore.

The private and foreign banks saw their net profits rise last year, by 21 percent and 17 percent respectively.

The 48 private banks altogether clocked in operating profits of Tk 14,941 crore, of which Tk 6,350 crore was taken off as tax and Tk 2,881 crore for provisioning.

After the deductions, the banks logged in net profit of Tk 5,711 crore.

The foreign banks' operating profit in 2014 was Tk 3,134 crore; Tk 1,331 crore was taken off as tax and Tk 99 crore as provisioning. After the subtractions, their net profit stood at Tk 1,704 crore.

Of the state banks, four -- Janata, Sonali, Rupali and Agrani -- made net profit of Tk 1,304 crore in 2014, which is an increase of 4.57 percent over the previous year.

But the group was pulled down by BASIC Bank, which made a net loss of Tk 2,686 crore last year and operating loss of Tk 111 crore. A high official of the bank said there was a greater need for provisioning, due to which their losses became bigger.

The five state banks, as a result, collectively ended up in the red for the year: the statistics showed they altogether made a net loss of Tk 1,381 crore.

Three other government-owned specialised banks last year made total operating profit of Tk 8 crore. However, their net loss was around Tk 42 crore mainly due to a large amount of loss by Krishi Bank. Krishi Bank's net loss was Tk 185 crore in 2014.

Meanwhile, Helal Ahmed Chowdhury, former managing director of Pubali Bank, told The Daily Star that bad loans of many banks came down thanks to monitoring by the central bank.

“The good news is that the banking sector's bad loans decreased last year to single digits.

Bangladesh is remaining one of the major recipients of financial assistance from the World Bank (WB), with obtaining a total lending commitment of $2.7 billion dollars by the end of 2015, reports BSS.
“The Bank already offered $1.2 billion for four projects and we hope the amount of the total lending commitment would stand at $2.7 billion at the end of this year,” Finance Minister AMA Muhith told journalists after a meeting with a top level official of the development partner. World Bank Vice-President for the South Asia Region Annette Dixon met with the finance minister at his office yesterday when they had discussions on the status of the current areas of assistance and future programmes and projects. One of the major issues was to speed up the process of releasing the expected $500 million budgetary support from the WB.
The WB high official assured that all expected support including the budget assistance would be continued. 
Dixon said at the meeting they had talked about the history of cooperation between Bangladesh and World Bank when she noted some significant progress that this country made in the recent years.
“My discussion focused on how the WB could support Bangladesh more to take the country to the middle income group in next few years”, she said.
She observed that Bangladesh economy in the past few years expanded well with 6 per cent year-on-year growth, which resulted in substantial reduction in poverty. 
“Poverty has reduced in the last ten years and we believe it is an outstanding success in development”, she said. 
The finance minister said that the bank would come forward with the budget programme, but there would have farther discussions on the issue.
He said the bank would partner with the government to help shape and implement the policies aimed at reducing poverty, improving shared prosperity and promoting sustainable growth.
”The poverty rate will be reduced at 11 to 14 per cent in 2018, and if it comes at this level, this will be like no poverty,” he added.
When asked about the negative impact of the present political unrest on poverty reducing initiatives, the finance minister said this situation would not sustain for long.
Terming the countrywide blockade and hartal by the BNP-Jamaat alliance as worthless, the finance minister said any political party in the country did not give such worthless programme before.

Bangladesh Bank has issued a set of policies for rescheduling agriculture loans, aiming at easing the conditions and the process of paying bank the outstanding loans and obtaining fresh credit by the farmers, reports BSS. “Considering the significant contribution of the farmers to the economic growth and attaining sustainability in the agriculture sector, the central bank has taken some decisions to help implement the farmer-friendly policy of the government and recover the outstanding farm loans”, BB said in a circular, issued to all banks on Monday.
The central bank instructed all banks to reschedule outstanding agriculture loans on the basis of the bank-client relationship. In some special cases, the loan rescheduling could be allowed without any down payment.
BB said the banks could also disburse fresh loans to the farmers after rescheduling the outstanding credits, and the fresh loans would not require any down payment.

The closing ceremony of secured Commercial Paper (CP) of BDT 500 million, arranged by Mutual Trust Bank Limited (MTB) and issued by Bengal Plastics Ltd., a concern of Bengal Group of Industries, a leading conglomerate of the country, was held at a city hotel recently, according to a statement.

M A Mannan, MP, Minister of State of the Ministry of Finance attended the program as the Chief Guest. MTB Chairman, Rashed Ahmed Chowdhury was present as the Special Guest while Bengal Group Chairman, Morshed Alam, MP, Vice Chairman, Jashim Uddin, MTB Vice Chairman M.A. Rouf, JP, MTB Managing Director & CEO Anis A. Khan, and on behalf of the Subscribers Md. Ahsan-uz Zaman, Managing Director and CEO, Midland Bank Ltd., Ajith Naranpanawe, Country Manager, Commercial Bank of Ceylon PLC, Habib Yousuf, Regional General Manager, Habib Bank Ltd., Mirza Elias Uddin Ahmed, Deputy Managing Director, Jamuna Bank Ltd. and Mohammad Borhanuddin, SEVP & Head of Corporate Assets & Client Origination,  Bank Asia Ltd. were also present.

The State Minister and Chief Guest of the event M A Mannan, MP appreciated the efforts of MTB and the Bengal Group to successfully launch a CP in the market. Such innovative ideas are important for the growth and development of the financial market, he said.

The MTB Chairman Rashed A. Chowdhury thanked Bengal Group for choosing MTB as their financial partner for their business growth, and, for contributing, significantly, to the overall socio-economic development of the country. Morshed Alam, MP, Chairman of Bengal Group of Industries expressed his gratitude to MTB and the subscribers for having confidence in his enterprise.

He urged all to work passionately to contribute to the improvement of the financial sector of the country and tap the growth potential of Bangladesh.