NCC Bank Limited will provide Tk 1.0 crore to the Dhaka University for constructing a gate named ‘Freedom and Democracy’ at Nilkhet entrance of the university.

In this connection, NCC Bank Limited and Dhaka University Alumni Association (DUAA) signed a MoU at the DUAA conference room of the university recently.

Acting Managing of NCC Bank Golam Hafiz Ahmed and President of DUAA Raquibuddin Ahmed signed the MoU on behalf of their respective organizations.

 Midland Bank Limited organised the 1st Annual General Meeting at Pan Pacific Sonargaon in Dhaka on Saturday.

M Moniruzzaman Khandaker, Chairman of the bank presided over the meeting, said a press release.

Directors and sponsors of the bank were present in the meeting. AKM Shahidul Haque, Managing Director and CEO, Khandokar Nayeemul Kabir, DMD along with other high officials of the bank attended.

KARACHI: The existing global Islamic finance landscape is no longer restricted to Islamic countries as basic tenets of Islamic finance, such as ethics, morality and investment in real economy are appealing non-Muslims also, said Ashraf Mahmood Wathra, the acting governor of State Bank of Pakistan.

Speaking at the Third Islamic Finance Expo and Conference-2014 on Thursday, the SBP’s acting governor said Pakistan being among the pioneers of Islamic banking also witnessed growth of over 30pc annually over the last five years and its share in country’s banking system has risen to over 10pc with a network of more than 1300 branches in 87 districts across the country.

The future outlook of the industry is also highly positive with bright prospects of achieving a market share of 20pc by 2020, he said.The SBP recently issued a comprehensive Shariah Governance Framework that institutionalises Shariah compliance function in IBIs and explicitly defines Shariah-related roles and responsibilities of its all key components, including board of directors, the executive management and Shariah Boards, he said.

He said that the government was already supporting local youth for entrepreneurship and loaning to youngsters through Islamic banks would be considered seriously. —The Dawn 

NCC Bank Limited signed an agreement with Airtel Bangladesh Limited to provide mobile banking services to Airtel subscribers, informed in a press release.
Airtel customers will be able to enjoy the service by following a simple registration process. Under this agreement, Airtel customers can avail cash-in, cash-out, money transfer, mobile top-up, school fee payment, bill payment and other services under the service brand “NCCB SureCash”. Progoti Systems Limited is the software solution partner of NCCB for this service.
Md. Omar Faruque Bhuiyan, Executive Vice President and Head of Cards & Mobile Banking of NCC Bank and Ms. Rubaba Dowla, Chief Service Officer and Head of mCommerce of Airtel Bangladesh signed the agreement on behalf of both organizations. Among others A.Z.M. Saleh, Sr. Executive Vice President of NCC Bank and Dr. Shahadat Khan, CEO of Progoti Systems were also present in the ceremony.

The World Bank has called on Bangladesh to raise domestic natural gas prices after five years without an increase, according to a report by Platts, a leading global energy, petrochemicals and metals information provider. “The administered price of domestically produced natural gas is fixed at a level considerably below that of the international market,” the bank said in its latest Bangladesh Development Update. “Not only does this represent an opportunity cost for the government in lost revenues, but the lack of an appropriate price signal leads to inefficiencies in allocation and use and limited incentives for further exploration,” the bank added. Domestic natural gas prices in Bangladesh currently range from Tk 72.92/Mcf (93 cents/Mcf) to Tk 268.09/Mcf across residential, industrial, commercial and power generation sectors. The country purchases natural gas from international oil companies operating in the country in the much higher range of $2-4.50/Mcf.
Bangladesh has not raised domestic natural gas prices since August 1, 2009, when tariffs for all types of consumers excluding CNG were raised 11 per cent. State-owned Petrobangla in 2012 sought to raise domestic natural gas prices by up to 103 per cent to meet rising exploration and gas purchasing costs, but was asked to re-submit its proposal to energy regulator Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission via its marketing and distribution subsidiaries with 
more documentation to justify the request, which it has yet to do.
The five-year plateau in prices may have discouraged investment in oil and gas exploration and been a factor in why the country had a poor response from international oil companies to its latest shallow water bidding round in 2012, a senior energy ministry official told Platts Friday.
The country signed only three production sharing contracts for shallow water blocks with two joint ventures after receiving one bid for each of the three blocks, which were among nine on offer.
Blocks SS-04 and SS-09 were awarded to a joint venture between India’s ONGC Videsh Limited and Oil India Limited, and SS-11 to a joint venture between Australia’s Santos and Singapore’s KrisEnergy.
US-based ConocoPhillips refused to ink a fourth PSC for block SS-07 seven months after signing an initial PSC for the block, saying after further evaluation it was no longer competitive in the company’s portfolio.
Bangladesh also received single bids for all three deepwater blocks re-offered in a 2013 bidding round, from ConocoPhillips and Norwegian energy firm Statoil, which are currently under evaluation.
Bangladesh’s natural gas production currently hovers around 2.3 Bcf/d, short of demand for 2.7-3 Bcf/d. It does not import gas.
Gas shortages have prompted Petrobangla to ration new connections to industries, fertiliser factories and power plants, hindering economic growth since 
June 2009.