From left, Md Mahbub-ur-Rahman, head of corporate banking of HSBC Bangladesh; Andrew Tilke, chief executive officer; and Talukdar Noman Anwar, country head of communications, attend a media briefing to launch the fifth HSBC Export Excellence Awards, at Ruposhi Bangla Hotel in Dhaka yesterday.

HSBC Bangladesh yesterday announced the launch of its Export Excellence Awards for the fifth year to honour five exporters for their outstanding performance.
The bank has designed the awards to promote Bangladeshi exporters and recognise their contribution to sustainable economic growth of the country through exports.
The awards will be given in five categories -- readymade garments and textiles exporters (Group A and Group B), EPZ enterprises, traditional and emerging sectors, and SMEs.
The deadline for submissions is May 21 and HSBC is expected to announce the winners in June.
“We are the only international bank with a presence in all of the eight export processing zones in Bangladesh, and we couple this together with our global network and our award winning cash management business to ensure that we are providing first-class support to Bangladeshi exporters,” said Andrew Tilke, chief executive officer of HSBC Bangladesh.
“This programme has continued since 2010 and this is my third year sitting at this podium at this programme,” he said at a press conference at Ruposhi Bangla Hotel in Dhaka.
With the last four installments, HSBC Export Excellence Awards has recognised seventeen Bangladeshi exporters.
In the last 40 years, the country has registered positive export growth except for one or two years, said Md Mahbub-ur-Rahman, head of corporate banking of HSBC Bangladesh.
Exports were worth around $300 million in fiscal 1972-73 and the amount reached more than $27 billion in fiscal 2012-13, contributing 20-22 percent to Bangladesh's gross domestic product, Rahman said.
“The Export Excellence Awards is our humble way of recognising their contribution in making a strong presence across the globe.”
HSBC divided garment and textiles exporters into two categories as these sectors account for a majority of the country's exports.
RMG exporters with annual export turnover worth $50 million or more are in Group A, and those with less than $50 million are in Group B.
Companies in the export processing zones will be awarded under the EPZ enterprises category.
The non-RMG or textiles companies with annual export turnover worth $5 million or more will be awarded under the traditional and emerging sectors category.
The SME category is for the non-RMG or textiles companies with annual export turnover below $5 million.
Exporters can participate in the programme by filling in a nomination form on the bank's website. Exporters can also nominate other exporters in any category.
The winning exporters will be selected through a sophisticated process of adjudication by an independent panel of jury members, said Talukdar Noman Anwar, country head of communications of HSBC Bangladesh.
The Daily Star, Prothom Alo, and Bangladesh Brand Forum are the strategic partners for the programme.

Customers will pay less for electronic transactions

Factors preventing Bangladesh Bank from launching its National Payment Switch (NPS) have been resolved, and efforts are in full swing to make the services available to customers by July.
Once all the banks join the NPS, a customer using a credit or debit card from any bank will be able to make low-cost transactions through any ATM (automated teller machine) and POS (point of sales) across Bangladesh.
“We are expected to begin the NPS services on full-scale by July,” said Dasgupta Asim Kumar, executive director of the central bank. Currently, BB is testing 26-27 services that will be available under the NPS.
NPS, which will be a mother payment and settlement gateway, is likely to increase the transparency of internal and cross-border electronic payments, optimise all regulatory and supervisory procedures, and reduce related costs, according to BB.
Commercial banks having an ATM, POS, e-payment gateways or mobile payment switches or connected to any other shared switch network will be able to send inter-bank payment instructions to the NPS for clearing and settlement.
In January 2012, BB signed a deal with a Singapore-based company to implement the NPS project at $5 million (Tk 40 crore), funded by the World Bank. However, the central bank did not examine whether the vendor can provide the original software.
By the time the installation of hardware was completed and 80 percent of the payments were made to the firm, BB came to know that Brussels-based OpenWay Group is the original supplier of the payment switch software across the world.
At the launch of the NPS trial services in December 2012, BB Governor Atiur Rahman said all the banks would be connected to the switch in a month or two. But only seven out of 56 banks have joined the NPS so far.
The issue rattled finance ministry officials who later asked the central bank to finish the project at any cost. Later, BB contacted IT Consultants Ltd, the local partner of OpenWay, to get the job done.
“NPS is moving forward and it will 'go live' fully by June,” said Kazi Saifuddin Munir, chief executive of IT Consultants that also operates Q-Cash, the largest ATM network in Bangladesh.
But the initial benefit will be with ATM transactions. Once the NPS is launched and all banks join the system, an ATM card holder has to pay just Tk 10 per transaction for using any bank's booth in the country instead of the current Tk 20-Tk 40, depending on the inter-bank relationship.
Presently, there are around 6,000 ATMs across the country, of which, Dutch-Bangla Bank has 2,500 ATM booths and Q-Cash has 3,000.

 Islami Bank Bangladesh Limited (IBBL) launched Hajj Prepaid Card to allow the pilgrims bear the permitted US dollar and Saudi Riyal with the Card.

Mohammad Abdul Mannan, Managing Director of the bank unveiled the Card at the bank’s board room at Islami Bank Tower on Sunday, said a press release.

Using the card, the pilgrims will also be able to withdraw dollar and Saudi Riyal from the ATM booths of Saudi Arabia bearing VISA Logo.

 Toma Group recently signed an agreement with Dutch-Bangla Bank Limited for payment of taxi fare through card.

For the first time in Bangladesh, Dutch-Bangla Bank Limited will install POS terminals in the Taxi Cab to be launched by Toma Group, said a press release.

With this, passengers will be able to pay taxi fare through DBBL Nexus Debit Card or VISA/MasterCard/UnionPay card (issued by any bank) by using DBBL POS Terminals.

Mohd. Ataur Rahman Bhuiyan (Manik), Managing Director of Toma Group and Md. Kamruzzaman, Head of Personal Banking Division of DBBL signed the agreement on behalf of their respective organizations recently.

BRAC Bank has introduced an affordable home loan product ‘Nijer Bari’ for the low and middle-income group people outside Dhaka city.

Sir Fazle Hasan Abed, Chairman, BRAC Bank Limited, formally launched the product at a programme recently at the bank’s headquarters in Dhaka by handing over the Loan Sanction Letter to Suriya Begum, who is the first customer of Nijer Bari, BRAC Bank said in a press release issued here on Monday.

Shib Narayan Kairy and Dr. Hafiz G. A. Siddiqi, Directors, Syed Mahbubur Rahman, Managing Director and CEO, Firoz Ahmed Khan, Head of Retail Banking and senior officials were present on the occasion.