Bangladesh Bank on Monday imposed temporary embargo on three branches of state-

owned BASIC Bank in sanctioning fresh loans after huge irregularities were found in those branches. The irregularities in the Gulshan, Shantinagar and Dilkusha branches already led to removal of the bank’s managing director Faqurul Islam by the central bank on Sunday. The BB in a letter to the acting managing director and chief executive officer of the bank asked not to sanction any fresh loan from the three branches until further notice. The bank’s board of directors gave deputy managing director Fazlus Sobhan additional charge of MD and CEO on Monday. The BASIC Bank scam came to the fore early in 2013 after the BB detected massive irregularities in giving loans. The central bank inspection teams found that the Shantinagar, Dilkusha and Gulshan branches of the state-owned bank gave around Tk 4,000 crore in loans between December 2009 and 2013, mostly by violating banking norms and rules. The BB letter also said that the central bank would take same measures against other branches of the bank if it unearthed similar irregularities. It said that the three branches would have to take approval from the executive committee of the BASIC Bank board to disburse loans which were sanctioned earlier before issuing the central bank letter. The EC committee of the board will give approval to disburse the loan if the concerned clients followed the compliance accurately, the BB letter said. According to the BB inspection reports, the three branches of BASIC Bank gave significant amount of loans to nonexistent companies and approved loans instantly after the clients had opened accounts. Moreover, the bank’s board sanctioned loans even before the branch sent the loan proposal to its headquarters. Of the amount, Tk 1,800 crore was given by the Gulshan branch, and most of the loans were issued without proper scrutiny. The Gulshan branch issued loans of Tk 45 crore to AB Trade Link and another Tk 112 crore to Ma Tex, EFS Enterprise and SPN Enterprise. All the four organisations are nonexistent. The BB inspection reports showed that the amount of loan disbursement at Shantinagar and Dilkusha branches had stood at Tk 1,524 crore and Tk 923.21 crore respectively between 2012 and 2011. Most of the loans of the two branches were disbursed violating the rules and regulation. RK Food Ltd and Nimex Ltd received significant amount of loans from Dilkusha branch without submitting proper documents. The three branches of the bank also sanctioned and disbursed loans in 2013 violating the central bank’s rules and regulations, according to a recent BB report. The Shantinagar branch disbursed Tk 36 crore to Hasib Enterprise and Tk 45 crore to SOS Brothers in early 2013 violating the rules and regulations.

BASIC Bank yesterday appointed a new managing director after the central bank removed Kazi Faqurul Islam from the troubled state bank as MD on Sunday.
BASIC Bank's most senior deputy managing director Fazlus Sobhan has been reassigned as the MD, the bank said in a statement.
A board meeting chaired by Shubhashish Bose, a director of BASIC Bank and vice chairman of the Export Promotion Bureau, took the decision, Ruhul Alam, a deputy managing director of the bank, said.
Bose chaired the meeting in the absence of Chairman Sheikh Abdul Hye Bacchu, who is abroad now.
Meanwhile, some people who identified themselves as BASIC Bank employees posted posters on roadside walls blaming Bacchu and two deputy managing directors for “damaging” the bank, which was considered as one of the best state-owned banks until 2009.After the government appointed little-known Bacchu as its chairman in September 2009, the bank's performance started eroding, a poster reads.
In a statement, BASIC Bank dismissed the allegations in the posters as unfounded. The bank filed a general diary with the Motijheel police. 

 First Security Islami Bank Limited Regional Training Institute, Chittagong organised a workshop on Foreign Exchange for the bank officials.

Mohammad Masum Kamal Bhuiyan, Executive Director of Bangladesh Bank, Chittagong inaugurated the workshop recently, said a press release.

Industries Minister Amir Hossain Amu yesterday acclaimed the Bangladesh Krishi Bank (BKB) for its significant role in turning Bangladesh into a food-autarchy, reports BSS.
He referred to the devastating flood in 1998 when the country witnessed food shortage, but the bank’s credit programme immensely helped overcome the situation in only two years after the disaster, said an official handout. The minister was speaking at a rally of representatives, arranged by the Karmachari Union of BKB in the auditorium of BKB Bhanan in the city. State minister for finance MA Mannan spoke on the occasion as the special guest. 
President of BKB Karmachari Union M Abdullah Khan presided over the function while chairman of BKB Governing Body Alauddin A Majid, managing director M Abdus Salam, director M Mahbubur Rahman Bhuiyan and Jatiya Sramik League president M Sukkur Mahmud addressed the function.
Amu favoured raising manpower of the BKB so that the bank can contribute more to the rural economy.
He called upon the BKB employees and Karmachari Union leaders to work with dedication and sincerity to supplement the government’s efforts in turning Bangladesh into a middle-income country.
The BKB disbursed highest Tk 6,000 core as loans among share croppers, marginal farmers, poor farmers and hard core poor last year. Out of Tk 37 lakh loan recipients, Tk 36 lakh are farmers, the bank sources said.

The central bank governor Dr Atiur Rahman yesterday asked the anti money laundering cell of insurance companies to strictly comply with rules and monitor the suspicious transactions to prevent money laundering and terrorist financing He also suggested the cell to send the report of suspicious transactions, if any, immediately to the central bank for prompt action. He, however, said money laundering and terrorist financing is not an internal problem, rather it’s a global concern.
The governor was addressing a conference on ‘Anti Money Laundering for Insurance Companies’ at a city hotel on Sunday. Bangladesh Bank (BB) and Insurance Development and Regulatory Authority (IDRA) jointly organised the conference.
Mere law can not check the problem of money laundering and terrorist financing, said the governor stressing the need for a joint effort of all concerned to fight against money laundering and terror financing form the country. He also highlighted the urgency for ensuring transparency and accountability in the country’s financial sector with a view to preventing money laundering and terrorist financing.
To reinforce the vigilance against money laundering and terrorist financing, the central bank has already introduced the software 'goAML', said Atiur. 
At present all banks, non-bank financial institutions and agencies submit cash transaction reports to the central bank through this software which, he said, helps the authority identify the suspicious transactions.
Addressing as the special guest, Banks and Financial Institutions Division (BFID) of Finance Ministry Secretary Dr M Aslam Alam said the country has enough rules and regulations but proper implementation of those are not satisfactory. 
The policy makers are formulating laws one after another but somehow these are not exercised accordingly, claimed the secretary.
“Vested groups are very active and commit crimes whenever they find any chance, so we have to be alert to check the ill practice. We can not stop the happenings, but it is possible to check or reduce the offences”, said the finance secretary. 
He expected that the joint initiative could reduce the crime substantially. 
The country’s economy is now well connected with the global economy and it needs to attain the trust of the global society for further development, said the secretary. 
To get confidence of the global society, BFID secretary said, the central bank has already taken several initiatives to check the money laundering and terrorist financing from the year 2008. 
The risk of the money laundering and the terror financing is reduced substantially due to strict monitoring by central bank and BFID. 
The secretary underscored the need for automation of country’s insurance sector immediately to identify the suspicious transactions. 
He also suggested to install modern financial software to prevent the fake and suspicious transactions.
The conference was addressed among others by the Bangladesh Bank Deputy Governor Abu Hena Md 
Razi Hassan, Bangladesh Insurance Association President Shiek Kabir Hossain and Member of IDRA Md Quddus Khan. 
The IDRA Chairman M Shefaque Ahmed presided over the anti money laundering conference.