The Half-Yearly Relationship Managers’ Conference of Exim Bank Limited was held at Gulshan in Dhaka on Monday.

Chairman of the bank Md. Nazrul Islam Mazumder was present at the conference as chief guest while Managing Director of the bank Dr. Mohammed Haider Ali Miah presided over the conference.

Vice Chairman of the bank Md. Abdul Mannan MP, Directors Md. Habib Ullah Dawn, Mohammed Shahidullah, Md. Nurul Amin, Major (Retd) Khandaker Nurul Afser, Lt Col (Retd) Serajul Islam, Abdullah Al-Zahir Shapan, Adviser Md. Fariduddin Ahmed and Deputy Managing Directors were also present.

Md. Nazrul Islam Mazumder, Chairman of the Bank says in his speech, Exim Bank is contributing both in the country and its economy. Exim Bank secured its position among the top banks by its transparency, accountability, development and corporate social responsibility.

 United Commercial Bank Limited (UCBL) organised training course on ‘Anti-Money Laundering and Combating Financing of Terrorism’ at the bank’s corporate head office in Dhaka on Monday.

Mirza Mahmud Rafiqur Rahman, Additional Managing Director of UCBL, attended the function, said a press release.

Abu Sadeque Miah, Executive Vice President and Head of Operations and Development, Chowdhury Mohidul Hoque, Head of ICCD of the bank along with different participants from various branches were present at the training.

Fifty participants attended the training course.

The objective of the training programme was to build the capacity of the participants to deal with any level of suspicious transactions or anything having doubtful nature to comply with Bangladesh Bank’s anti-money laundering guidelines and terror financing to minimise bank risks.

Credit roll-out by local private banks has increased substantially in recent times on the back of a pick-up in business activities thanks to political calm.

Credit growth of the private banks, whose share in the total credit disbursed comes to 69.35 percent, stood at 15.56 percent on June 30, compared to a year earlier.

The state-owned and foreign banks that account for 23.82 percent of total loans have seen negative credit growth in the year to June 30, according to data from the central bank.

Credit disbursement by the state-owned commercial banks declined 4.17 percent and foreign banks 1.67 percent, while the five state-owned specialised banks registered 13.12 percent growth on June 30 from a year ago.

At the end of June, total credit stood at Tk 491,210 crore, with almost half of it being industrial credit that comprises working capital and term-loans.

Working capital in both private and foreign banks rose significantly, statistics from Bangladesh Bank show.

In fiscal 2013-14, working capital disbursement by private banks rose around 20 percent year-on-year and that of foreign banks 95 percent. But state-owned commercial banks' working capital disbursement fell 56 percent.

Term loan disbursement by private commercial banks rose 30 percent, while that of state-owned commercial banks and foreign banks 56 percent and 26 percent respectively.

Khondker Ibrahim Khaled, a former deputy governor of the central bank, said the private banks' credit growth is nothing out-of-the-ordinary as the political situation has calmed down. “In fact, a vacuum does not exist for long.”

New investment though is slightly low for non-availability of gas and electricity connections to new industries, he said. 

The new factories are being run with fuel-based generators, which increase operational costs. If two factories from the same industry are run with two different sources of energy, they cannot compete with one other, according to Khaled. “As a result, the new industries are hesitant to come to the market.”

He also said the fall in credit disbursement by state banks is due to their shyness to distribute loan owing to earlier scams.

Zaid Bakht, a director of Sonali Bank, echoed the same, adding that state-banks' vigilance is high mainly after the Hall-Mark scam.

He said the reason for the private banks' increase in credit disbursement is that they mainly provide import financing and working capital and imports increased recently and so did businesses' demand for working capital following the diffusion of political tension.

Bakht, also the research director of Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies, expects credit roll-out to increase much next year, when the Padma bridge project is in full swing.

Meanwhile, a branch manager of the state-owned Agrani Bank told The Daily Star that while they hesitate to extend a Tk 100 crore loan even after adequate collateral, the private banks give out Tk 200 crore loans against the same collateral.

“Banking by private banks is much more aggressive than the state banks,” he added.

A branch manager of UCBL Bank, a private bank, said they are given a specific target every year and if they fail to meet that the bank cannot do business. “We still scrutinise all paperwork before disbursing loans.”

NRB Bank yesterday made its foray into the largely neglected segment of small and medium enterprises as part of its promise to contribute to creating entrepreneurs.

To start off, the newly set-up bank handed over loan sanction letters to owners of Ligion Herbal Ltd, a herbal company, and Bimurto, a handicraft company, at a ceremony at the capital's Sonargaon Hotel.

Ligion Herbal's Chairman Tania Haque and Bimurto's owner Wafi Islam got loans of Tk 1 crore and Tk 18 lakh respectively to expand their businesses.

NRB Bank, which began operations in August last year, has built a team and developed products for SMEs, said Mukhlesur Rahman, managing director of NRB Bank, on the occasion.

“It is a great thing that we have launched products for SMEs.”

Iqbal Ahmed, chairman of NRB Bank, said the best way to create entrepreneurs is to finance the SMEs, as almost all conglomerates across the world as well as in Bangladesh started off as small ventures.

“Our motto is to create SMEs, as without them the country will not grow,” he said, while urging his bankers to educate customers about the products.

Abul Kashem, deputy governor of Bangladesh Bank, said the SMEs today would become big industries in future if they are provided with adequate financing and other facilities.

He advised the SMEs to maintain accounting and prepare business cases properly, so that banks find them to be feasible clients.

Kashem suggested NRB Bank use the refinancing scheme of Bangladesh Bank to provide low-cost funds to SMEs.

Syed Md Ihsanul Karim, managing director of SME Foundation, welcomed the bank's move to the world of SMEs.

Presenting a paper on challenges and future of SMEs, Toufic Ahmad Choudhury, director general of Bangladesh Institute of Bank Management, said SME financing is still regulator-driven; banks are yet to participate in it spontaneously. 

About 85 percent of the loans lent in the country are for Tk 2 lakh or less and the remaining 15 percent are corporate loans, he said.

“All the 56 banks can't rely on 15 percent for survival. You have to go to the SMEs and create a market for yourself.”

He also asked banks to separate trading from the SME scheme, as traders are already doing fine within the current framework of traditional banking. 

Choudhury said banks would have to understand SME financing properly as this segment is very different from traditional banking. He advised banks to understand the needs of SMEs properly and customise their products.

The economist urged banks for streamline the documentation process for SMEs, as at present they need to submit 27 different papers to qualify for a loan.

Wahid-Bin-Ahmed, vice-president of NRB Bank for SME banking, and Zeeshan Hasib, head of corporate banking of NRB Bank, also spoke.  

NRB Bank has so far opened eight branches, with plans to open five more this year.

 Shahjalal Islami Bank Limited (SJIBL) organised its Half Yearly Managers’ Conference at a hotel in Dhaka on Thursday.

The inaugural ceremony was presided over by Farman R Chowdhury, Managing Director and CEO of the bank.

AK Azad, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the bank was present at the conference as the chief guest, said a press release.