Trust Bank and the ICT Division also signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the issue

Rejaul Karim Byron

In an extraordinary move, BASIC Bank's top managers have forfeited a certain portion of their monthly gross salaries in a bid to minimise the operating costs in the face of financial tribulations.

The bank's six deputy managing directors have given up Tk 30,000 each from their gross monthly salaries and the 12 general managers Tk 20,000 each -- a first in the country.

“The management voluntarily took the initiative. There was no pressure from the board, but they appreciated the decision,” Mojib Uddin Ahmed, a director of the bank, told The Daily Star yesterday.

The move is part of the action plan that BASIC sent last week to the finance ministry to rescue the ailing bank by 2016.

Presently, the state-run bank's DMDs draw Tk 4 lakh as monthly gross salary and the GMs Tk 2 lakh. The forfeited amount will be kept in one of the deposit pension schemes of the bank and if BASIC sees net profits by 2016, the sum would be paid back to the 18 officials.

A high official of BASIC said a similar pay cut will be offered to the bank's top officials in phases.

In return for the action plan, the bank sought Tk 1,372 crore on an emergency basis from the government fund to meet its capital shortfall.  As of June, the bank had a capital shortfall of Tk 1,675 crore.

The specialised bank in the action plan said due to its capital shortfall and the overwhelming negative image, many international banks are not accepting its letters of credits (LCs).

Ahmed said the matter has been taken care of. “It happened for a short period. The problem is over now -- there is nothing to worry about.”

He said the bank management sat down with those who hesitated in doing business and reassured them that they are now dealing with a new, improved and upright BASIC Bank.

Meanwhile, in the action plan sent to the bank and financial institutions division, BASIC said by 2016 it will: realise default loans amounting to Tk 1,000 crore, bring down the default loan volume to less than 35 percent and aim to make net profits of Tk 150 crore.

In December last year, the bank's net loss stood at Tk 53 crore,

It also set a target of increasing private deposit, which now stands at only 11 percent of the bank's deposits, to 25 percent in the next two years. 

Some 250 proposals approved by the previous board have been suspended and the management asked to bring fresh proposals on a case-by-case basis.

The action plan also mentioned that efforts are being made to bring back the bank's 50 good borrowers who left due to the rampant corruption culture during the previous board's regime.

In July, the government recast the bank's board to be helmed by former Krishi Bank Chairman Alauddin A Majid.

The steps taken against the irregularities that occurred at the bank were also mentioned. The Anti-Corruption Commission is conducting an investigation and BASIC will take actions against the persons found responsible in the probe.

Furthermore, an audit firm will go through approved loans of Tk 1 crore and above to detect irregularities, if any.

The process of appointing the accountancy firm is underway, and actions will be taken against those against whom allegations are found correct in the audit report.

 Al-Arafah Islami Bank Limited has launched Business Process Automation (BPA) to provide faster and smarter client-service.

Badiur Rahman, Chairman of the bank inaugurated the BPA project at the bank’s head office on Sunday, said a press release.

Md. Harun-Ar-Rashid Khan, Nazmul Ahsan Khaled, Abdul Malek Mollah, Hafez Md. Enayet Ullah, Ahamedul Haque, A N M Yeahea, Engr. Kh. Mesbah Uddin Ahmed, Abdus Salam, Niaz Ahmed, Md. Ashik Hossain, Mohammad Emadur Rahman, Doctor Shafiul Haidar Chowdhury, Anowar Hossain, Md. Liakat Ali Chowdhury and Khalid Rahim, Directors of the bank were present on the occasion.

Md. Habibur Rahman, Managing Director of the bank presided over the ceremony.

Badiur Rahman in his speech described BPA as the automation of complex business processes and functions beyond conventional data manipulation and record keeping activities, usually through the use of advanced technologies.

He said, by adopting BPA, the bank will be able to eliminate repetitive paper intensive bureaucratic tasks which will reduce costs and provide better risk management. He also mentioned, the ultimate motive for implementing BPA is to provide improved customer service and to acquire better organisational strength.

Rakibul Islam yearns for the day he graduates from a reputed institution, although it once seemed like a far-cry as the costs of education were a burden to his family.

He recalled his past struggle, at a scholarship-award giving ceremony by Shahjalal Islami Bank yesterday, standing in front of hundreds of students like him, policymakers and bankers.

It was uncertain whether he could even complete his schooling as his father passed away early and his mother struggled to make ends meet. But his mother never compromised on her son's education. He is now a first-year student at Government Edward College in Pabna. Rakibul Islam was awarded a scholarship of Tk 25,000 by the bank. 

“The scholarship is motivation for the needy but talented students,” he said. “It is a great initiative by the bank.”

The bank awarded scholarships worth Tk 1.1 crore to 500 meritorious and financially-insolvent students, who passed SSC and HSC in 2013 across the country, at yesterday's programme.

A total of 5,000 students had applied for the scholarship.

Each student received a onetime payment of Tk 20,000 at the SSC level and Tk 25,000 for HSC level.

BEIJING: China’s bank lending nearly doubled in August from the previous month, central bank data showed on Friday, rebounding towards what analysts described as a normal level.

Chinese banks granted 702.5 billion yuan ($114.5 billion) in new loans last month, the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) said in a statement, nearly twice July’s 385.2 billion yuan, reports AFP.

But it was still lower than June’s 1.08 trillion yuan and 10.3 billion yuan less than the amount recorded a year ago, PBoC data showed.

Shen Jianguang, a Hong Kong-based economist, said August’s figure, although still “relatively low” represented a “close-to-standard” monthly level given analysts’ consensus that the government wants to see 10 trillion yuan lent this year.

“It reflected limited relaxing of monetary policy, which was targeted and not aggressive,” he told AFP.

Premier Li Keqiang has said that the government would not seek to boost economic growth by pumping up credit growth.

“There is already a large amount of money in the pool. It’s impossible for us to continue to rely on issuing new bank notes to stimulate economic growth,” Li said this week, according to an earlier report by the state-run Securities Daily.

Julian Evans-Pritchard, an analyst with research firm Capital Economics, welcomed the slower credit growth.

“It is necessary to put China’s growth on a more sustainable long-run trajectory,” he wrote in a research note.

Shen said August’s lending figure also showed soft demand for loans as the property market remained sluggish, which was among the reasons for the slump in new loans in July.

“The economy’s major problem is weakness in the property sector,” he said.

Real estate is a key driver of economic growth and a major source of revenues for local government, but China’s new home prices fell for the fourth consecutive month in August.