The finance minister AMA Muhith will select the managing directors of the two state-owned banks Agrani, specialised BASIC and Grameen Bank

Mohammad Lutfar Rahman, chairman of the executive committee of IFIC Bank, has recently been reelected as the chairman of Nepal Bangladesh Bank Ltd (NBBL), a joint venture operation of IFIC Bank in Nepal.
The election took place at NBBL's 19th annual general meeting in Kathmandu on Sunday, IFIC said in a statement yesterday.
Arijit Chowdhury, director of IFIC Bank, and Shah Alam Sarwar, managing director, were also elected as directors of NBBL.

India's central bank governor Raghuram Rajan has said crony capitalism is emerging as a "real concern" in India and a major threat to competition and economic growth.

The term describes instances when governments give firms or individuals favourable treatment and allow conglomerates undue political influence.

"One of the greatest dangers to the growth of developing countries is... crony capitalism (which) creates oligarchies that slow down growth," Rajan said in a lecture late Monday in Mumbai.

During the recent Indian elections that brought the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party to power, crony capitalism emerged as "a very real concern of the public", Rajan added.

The issue has come to the fore in Asia's third-largest economy where critics allege many business houses have benefited from political favours -- accusations strongly denied by the companies.

The upstart Aam Aadmi (Common Man) party accused India's hugely profitable Reliance Industries of wielding undue political backroom power during this year's campaign.

India's Supreme Court has also waged a vigorous fight against instances of government contracts being awarded to various companies on the basis of possible collusion.

Rajan, a former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund, is known for his outspoken nature, breaking the mould of central bankers globally who are generally extremely guarded.

"By killing transparency and competition, crony capitalism is harmful to free enterprise, opportunity, and economic growth," Rajan said.

The phenomenon also harmed democracy, he added, as companies placed special interests ahead of the public good.

Rajan noted in India there was a widely held view that the country "suffers from want of a 'few good men' in politics".

But groups of politicians with the intent of cleaning up the system lost badly at election time, possibly because their corrupt rivals promised more help to the underprivileged, he said.

To avoid this trap, and to strengthen India's democracy, the country must improve public services, Rajan added, especially those targeted at the country's hundreds of millions of poor.

A suit was filed with a Dhaka court yesterday against 11 officials of Sonali Bank and 22 of Hall-Mark and its sister concerns over a Tk 525.6 crore loan scam.

Abul Hashem, deputy general manager of Sonali Bank's Ruposhi Bangla Hotel branch, filed the case with the first joint district judge's court.

Judge Fazle Elahi Bhuiyan asked the defendants to explain by August 28 why action would not be taken against them for siphoning off funds from the bank on forged documents.

Hall-Mark Chairman Jasmine Islam, Managing Director Tanvir Mahmud and General Manager Tushar Ahmed have been made defendants in the suit.

Mainul Haque and Atiqur Rahman, former managing directors of Sonali Bank, and 10 other officials of different ranks are also made defendants in the suit.

Officials of Hall-Mark Group in league with Sonali Bank officials took the loan from Sonali Bank's Ruposhi Bangla Hotel branch in the name of different companies through 177 vouchers showing fake documents from December 28, 2011 to March 28, 2012, according to a case document.   

The loan swelled to Tk 755 crore with interest taken into account until June 30.

Earlier in March, April, May and June, the bank filed 14 other cases against Jasmine Islam, Mahmud and 12 of their companies with the Money Loan Court-1 of Dhaka for taking Tk 401.05 crore in loan on forged documents.

Sonali Bank started filing the cases after it failed to get buyers for the mortgaged assets of Hall-Mark.

The Anti-Corruption Commission filed 11 cases against 27 persons of Hall-Mark and its lender Sonali Bank in October 2012 and pressed charges against 25 of them in October last year on money laundering allegation.

Seven accused, including Mahmud, are now in jail while Jasmine Islam is on bail and 17 others are absconding.

Hall-Mark alone took away Tk 2,686 crore from the branch on forged documents between 2010 and 2012. The scam shook the country when it came to light in May 2012.

 Dutch-Bangla Bank Limited (DBBL) organised a day-long workshop on “Integrated Supervision System (ISS) Reporting” for the officials of the bank.

KS Tabrez, Managing Director of the bank inaugurated the workshop held at the bank’s Training Centre at Gulshan in Dhaka recently, said a press release.

Abul Kashem Md. Shirin and Md Sayedul Hasan, Deputy Managing Directors of the bank spoke on the occasion. Resource persons from Bangladesh Bank conduct various sessions in the workshop.