The 24th foundation course for the newly-recruited Trainee Assistant Officers (TAO) of First Security Islami Bank Limited (FSIBL) has begun at the bank’s Training Institute at Bashundhara residential area in Dhaka recently.

A. A. M. Zakaria, Managing Director of the bank inaugurated the course, said a press release.

In his speech, Managing Director urged the bank officials for rendering their services with sincerity to build the bank as a generous and modern Islamic bank and advised all to remain honest and sincere in their career.

Yusuf Haroon Abedi, Principal of the Training Institute was also present on the occasion.

Bangladesh Bank (BB) on Wednesday revoked the Prime Bank’s mobile banking permission on ground of gross irregularities by the bank in mobile banking operations.

Conveying the decision, the central bank on Wednesday sent a letter to the Prime Bank authorities, BB Executive Director Dasgupta Ashim Kumar told BSS.

He said BB took the decision after the Prime Bank failed to give satisfactory reply to the querries of the central bank regarding a major misconduct by the mobile banking partner of this private bank.

He said BB in the letter told the authorities of Prime Bank that the misconduct was a major violation of the mobile banking guideline, issued by the central bank in 2009.

On receiving complaints, a BB investigation found that SMG Infocom Limited, the operating partner of the Prime Bank for mobile banking intentionally shut its operation after receiving huge cash by appointing few hundred agents for doing mobile banking services of the Prime Bank.

The central bank also found that the Prime Bank signed agreement with another operational partner Unitrend Network for running its mobile banking service without taking any action against SMG Infocom for its fraudulent activities.

Currently, 20 banks are providing mobile banking services to hundreds of clients across the country, particularly to the people in rural area, where access to traditional banking services is limited.

The central bank issued a guideline for mobile banking in 2009 and subsequently allowed 28 banks to do mobile banking. Formal mobile banking, however, began in 2011 with Brac Bank being the leader with its brand bKash.

News:Daily Sun/7-Agc-2014

The government and Mutual Trust Bank have agreed in principle to provide loan for purchasing laptop to the freelancers who are being developed under ‘Learning and Earning Programme’ (LEP).

The decision was taken at a meeting between Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Secretary Md Nazrul Islam Khan and Managing Director and CEO of Trust Bank Istiaque Ahmed Chowdhury held at the ICT division on Wednesday.

Both ICT Division and Mutual Trust Bank will sit again within a week to sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in this regard, official sources said.

They said the ICT Division has agreed to become a guarantor for such loans. “We are pursuing the banks to provide loan for buying laptop since launching of the Learning and Earning Programme in early 2012 and the Trust Bank is the first to come up with a proposal to provide such loan for the already-developed-freelancers,” Khan said.

He said ICT Division has developed around 20,000 freelancers so far under its ongoing Learning and Earning Programme out of the 70,000 targeted by this year. But, many of them have no ability to buy a laptop required for outsourcing work and building career as IT professionals, Khan added.

He said ICT Division and Trust Bank have initially agreed in principle to provide loan to these freelancers to build their career as IT professionals and create self employment.

Additional Secretary of ICT Division and Managing Director of High-Tech Park Authority Hosne Ara Begum, Joint Secretary (planning and development) Shyama Prasad Bepari and Executive Vice President of Trust Bank S M Akram Sayeed were present. 

Md. Habibur Rahman was recently promoted to Deputy Managing Director of Jamuna Bank Ltd.

Prior to this position, he was Senior Executive Vice President and Head of Credit Risk Management Division of Jamuna Bank Ltd, said a press release.

After completing post-graduation in Economics from University of Chittagong, Habibur started his career as a probationary officer with Islami Bank Bangladesh Ltd in 1989.

He worked in Prime Bank Ltd, Mercantile Bank Ltd and Shahjalal Islami Bank Ltd at various positions in head offices and different branches.

Habibur Rahman is an active Rotarian and member of Rotary Club of Dhaka Fort.

Because there is still a big challenge ahead as curse of NPL is hovering over banks’ head’

Net profit of nearly 80% of the listed private banks have increased in the first half of this year due mainly to higher income from treasury bonds and improved import situation.

Bankers said loan rescheduling against Non-Performing Loans (NPL) have also helped increasing the net profit, but NPL is still a headache as it will have to be adjusted at the end of the year.

They, however, hoped the earnings would be better in the days to come if the political situation remains in favour of investment.

Of the 30 listed banks, the net profit of 23 marked rise, five saw a fall and two incurred losses in the January to June period, according to Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) data.

Pubali Bank Managing Director Helal Ahmed Chowdhury said some banks recovered well from their poor earnings last year hit by the political unrest.

He said the banks have earned the lion’s share of income from investment in government treasury bonds. “It gives a big support in boosting earnings as rate of interest of bonds was higher in the last quarter.”

Some supports also came from realising commission from opening LC (letter of credit) that rose in the recent months, and remittances, he said.

Imports rose by 20.7% in the last fiscal compared to the previous fiscal. In June this year, the opening of LCs posted a rise of about 31% compared with that of a negative growth of 17 % in the same month of 2013, according to Bangladesh Bank.

Mutual Trust Bank Limited (MTBL) Managing Director Anis A Khan said mainly expansion, diversification and restructure of planning has helped bringing good results. “Banks’ investment in Treasury bonds with high call rate has helped recovering well in the recent times from last year’s dismal earnings.”

The banker said the impact of loan defaults, which shot up last year following a series of banking scams and political unrest, might improve this year too, if political field remains calm.

Chowdhury said rescheduling NPL in line with the central bank rules helped banks keep lower provisioning, also contributing to the profits. “But there is no reason for complacency. Because there is still a big challenge ahead as curse of NPL is hovering over banks’ head.” About NPL, Khan said it followed last year’s trend.

The banks registered increased earnings by more than 100% are MTBL, Jamuna Bank, Social Islami Bank Ltd (SIBL), National Bank and AB Bank.

The banks with increased earnings by more than 50% are UCBL, Mercantile, Exim Bank, City Bank and Al-Arafah Bank.

The banks that saw a decline in their net profit are BRAC Bank, EBL, Islami Bank, One Bank and Rupali Bank.

Shahjalal Bank incurred losses of Tk49.5 crore in the first half of this year against its net profit of Tk20.7 crore a year earlier. During the period, accumulated losses of ICB Islami Bank rose to Tk26.3 crore, which was Tk8.6 crore.

Despite majority of banks registering increased net profit, they failed to attract stock investors. Yesterday, share prices of banks – the stock market’s bellwether – dropped 0.4%.

“It is probably because of bad loan,” said Asad Khan, managing director of Prime Finance and Investment Ltd.

He said banks enjoy loan rescheduling facility against bad loan, giving a boost to income. But at the end of the year, bad loan will be adjusted with the profits. Failure in bad loan recovery means negative impact on profit.”