Bangladesh Bank (BB) will give Bangladesh Krishi Bank (BKB) Taka 200 crore for its “Ghore Fera Kormo Suchi” (go back home project). The project aims at rehabilitating slum dwellers to the rural areas from cities and towns. 

The central bank will sign an agreement Sunday with BKB for disbursing the loan under the programme, designed to reduce the pressure of huge population on cities especially on the capital city of Dhaka.

“The central bank is offering the fund to take back the urban poor to their homes under the “Ghore Fera Kormo Suchi” of the government,” BB Executive Director told BSS.

He said the central bank is providing the money from its housing fund at 2.0 percent rate of interest when the borrowers would pay only 6.0 percent annually.

Under the programme, the eligible borrowers can get Taka 20-40 thousand loan for income generating projects besides Taka 50,000 for housing.

Introduced in 2010, the government so far allocated Taka 10 crore for the project to help slum-dwellers to go back home and employ themselves. BSS 

IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, and global apparel and footwear company VF Corporation will provide up to $10 million to help VF suppliers in Bangladesh finance fire and building safety upgrades in their factories, reports UNB. VF, the parent company to many well-known brands, including The North Face, Vans, Wrangler and JanSport, will provide a full corporate guarantee in support of loans for its suppliers. This enables IFC and its partner BRAC Bank to lend to suppliers at lower interest rates and helps suppliers speed up fire and building safety upgrades, according to a message received in Dhaka on Thursday. The garment sector in Bangladesh accounts for 80 per cent of the country’s total export earnings and 20 per cent of its GDP. It employs more than 4 million workers-80 per cent of them women-in formal jobs in more than 4,500 factories. The sector, including buyers and suppliers, is eager to improve workplace environment and sustainable competitiveness.
VF is a founding member of the Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety, an industry group of international apparel manufacturers and buyers.  This group has provided fire and safety training to more than 1 million Bangladeshi factory workers and carried out inspections at all 587 factories that supply to its members. Its work has resulted in corrective action plans for bringing factories up to acceptable standards. Lack of financing is an obstacle for many suppliers needing to invest in these safety upgrades. “The safety of the people making our products around the world is an imperative,” said Eric Wiseman, chairman, president and CEO of VF.  “Our program with IFC helps to ensure that our suppliers have access to the necessary capital to complete safety improvement plans.”
Serge Devieux, IFC dDirector for South Asia, said: “Employment in the apparel industry has reduced poverty for millions of women in Bangladesh. This financing model, which we think could work well for other buyers and suppliers, will help Bangladesh’s suppliers improve work conditions and strengthen the country’s ability to attract garment manufacturers.” This financing arrangement with VF Corporation is part of IFC’s broader approach to transforming Bangladesh’s textile sector. IFC also launched its supplier-finance programme, which 
allows suppliers to improve their access to working capital. Besides providing financing, IFC supports better labour and environmental standards through advisory programs such as Better Work Bangladesh and the Bangladesh Partnership for Cleaner Textiles. IFC is also investing in energy and power to improve power supply in the electricity grid and reduce the need for dangerous rooftop generators.

Banks will have to lend at least 5 percent of their total loans a year to green projects, Bangladesh Bank said in a notice yesterday.

The amount will be 3 percent for nine new banks and 4 percent for non-bank financial institutions.

For example, if a bank lends Tk 2,000 crore a year, it has to give 5 percent of the loans or Tk 100 crore directly to green projects.

There are no such targets now and the new measures will come into effect next year.

“Eco-friendly financing is important for sustainable banking and relevant for the country vulnerable to climate change,” BB said.

Green financing will carry points while calculating a bank or non-bank's CAMELS (capital, asset, management, earning, liquidity and sensitivity) rating.

The central bank will take actions against the lenders that will fail to meet the target.

The BB first came up with the idea of green banking by issuing a policy guideline in February 2011. In 2012, banks were provided with a uniform format for reporting green banking activities in a structured manner. In 2013, policy guidelines for green banking were issued for non-banks.

The BB had also asked the banks to introduce a comprehensive green banking policy and set up a unit by December 2013 in a bid to make banking practices more responsible to social and environmental causes.

Banks and non-banks also have to inform the BB of their green financing activities on a quarterly basis.

The quarterly report for April-June 2014 released last week said all 47 banks (scheduled before 2013) have their own green banking policy guidelines approved by their boards and have green banking units. Of the nine new banks, two have formulated their own policy guidelines and two have set up green banking units till the reporting quarter.

Non-banks lag behind banks as 22 out of 31 have formulated their own green banking policy guidelines approved by their boards.

The report said 38 banks have utilised Tk 11,270 crore during April-June. Of the amount, Tk 11,257 crore was for green financing and the rest for climate risk fund and capacity building. The banks had utilised around Tk 7,500 crore during the January-March quarter. BB data shows some 9,502 projects were rated under environmental risk, of which 7,725 were financed by banks and non-banks in the reporting quarter.

Touhidul Alam Khan, deputy managing director of Modhumoti Bank, said setting the green loan target is an epoch-making step for the country.

“The notice is definitely a timely one and the BB has shown its commitment towards building a greener environment,” said Khan, also the first Certified Sustainability Reporting Specialist in Bangladesh.

Bangladesh Bank (BB) has started formulation of its next five-year strategic plan putting emphasis on strengthening of supervision for ensuring transparency, accountability and good governance in the country’s banking sector.

“We want to reinforce our supervision to ensure accountability, transparency and good governance in the banking sector through utilising the maximum level of the latest technology,” BB Governor Dr Atiur Rahman said, reports BSS.

He was speaking at the inaugural ceremony of a three-day strategic planning workshop at the BRAC Centre for Development Management (BCDM) Thursday.

The BB governor also said the central bank is now working to find out further stringent measures taking lessons from the past for curbing financial irregularities in the banking sector.

All the officials in the rank of general manager and above are taking part in the in-house workshop on ‘Strategic planning: Heading towards a new horizon’ to formulate the next five-year strategic plan for 2015-19.

Seven strategic focuses have already been set in the draft plan aiming to turn the BB into a world-class central bank. The areas of focus are supervision and regulation for ensuring financial stability, balanced and coordinated monetary policy, socially responsible financing and inclusive growth, promoting more liberalised foreign exchange regime, optimisation of human capital in the BB, effective communication and positive image building and establishment of leadership excellence centre in Chittagong. Deputy Governors SK Sur Chowdhury, Nazneen Sultana and Executive Director Ahsan Ullah, among others, spoke on the occasion. 

 IFIC Bank Limited recently organised a course on ‘Prevention of Money Laundering and Combating Financing of Terrorism’ at the bank’s Training Institute at Motijheel in Dhaka.

S.M. Abdul Hamid, DMD and Chief Anti-Money Laundering Compliance Officer inaugurated the training course. Executives and officers of Nawabpur Road, Islampur and Bangshal branches participated in the course. Kamal Hossain, Joint Director of BFIU, Bangladesh Bank, Head Office, A.F.M. Asaduzzaman, First Vice President and Deputy CAMLCO and Md. Abu Sufian Siddiquee, SAVP and Head of Currency Management and member of Central Compliance of IFIC Bank were present as resource persons.-