The total deposit by Bangladeshi citizens in various Swiss banks totalled Tk5,566 crore in 2016, and Tk4,417 crore in 2015

The Bangladesh government has already sought information about Bangladeshi depositors in Swiss banks but are yet to receive a reply, said Finance Division officials.

They said Bangladesh Bank had sent several letters to the Swiss National Bank over the last three years seeking the information. But the SNB authorities have never answered.

However, India will be receiving information about the country’s depositors in Swiss banks under the “Automatic Exchange of Information” agreement signed between Switzerland and India.

As there is no such agreement with Bangladesh, the government will again seek information on depositors  in Swiss banks, as SNB data shows that deposits by the Bangladeshis surged by 19% in 2016 from a year ago.

Also Read – Bangladeshi money in Swiss banks jumps by 19%

Officials said the information will help Bangladesh take back money believed to be laundered there.

Last May, Switzerland bent to pressure from the United States and the European Union and relaxed its law of secrecy, which for generations has been the principal cause of attraction for deposits.

Following the development, the Federal Banking Commission of Switzerland said that it would abolish the so-called Form B bank accounts that have enabled dictators, drug barons, arms dealers and the like to keep ill-gotten gains in Switzerland without disclosing their identity.

Swiss bank insiders said the change in rules could shed light on rumours that former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein of Iraq deposited a fortune in Switzerland.

Swiss banks have denied holding any accounts in Hussein’s name, but the insiders said his money could be held in Form B accounts.

On Thursday, the SNB published a series of annual reports which revealed that deposits by Bangladeshi citizens have gone up significantly.

The report for the year 2016 disclosed that there has been a 19% increase in deposits since 2015. The total deposit by Bangladeshi citizens in various Swiss banks totalled Tk5,566 crore in 2016, and Tk4,417 crore in 2015.

It was also revealed that, despite the reduction in foreign currency deposits in Swiss banks over the last few years, deposits by Bangladeshi citizens have been increasing steadily.

Switzerland has been famous for secret bank deposits by wealthy people for a long time. While depositing the money, the name and address of the depositor was kept confidential and the money was kept on the basis of a code number.

But since 2002, the Money Laundering Prevention Act has been widely implemented to prevent money laundering worldwide.  As a result, they have been publishing information on deposits from different countries since.

Among the letters sent by Bangladesh Bank to SNB, one sought the possibility to sign a Memorandum of Understanding with the SNB. It has not received any response yet.

Bangladesh’s central bank also sent two letters to SNB seeking wealth information about controversial Bangladeshi businessman Moosa Bin Shamsher and his family. SNB didn’t respond.

It is alleged that a large amount of money was laundered from different branches of multinational bank HSBC to SNB from Bangladesh.

SNB signed agreements with 22 countries including India and Pakistan during the last several years.

Former Finance Adviser to the caretaker government AB Miza Azizul Islam claimed wealthy people who launder money out of Bangladesh to Swiss banks enjoyed political backing.

Most of the money was laundered by unscrupulous businessmen through under and over-invoicing in international trade, he said.

“The government should take stern action against those dishonest wealthy people having deposits in Swiss banks by seeking information,” Mirza Aziz told the Dhaka Tribune.

Subhankar Saha, executive director of Bangladesh Bank, said different government agencies including Bangladesh Bank are “trying to take strict measures against the money laundering by Bangladeshi businessmen through over and under-invoicing.”

However all of the deposits by Bangladeshis in Swiss banks were not directly from Bangladesh and a large portion of the money came from across the globe, he added.

Of 40 PCBs, 15 marked an upward trend in operating profits while three witnessed a downturn

Operating profits of the country's private commercial banks (PCBs) showed an upturn in the first six months of the current calendar year.

Of 40 PCBs, 15 marked an upward trend in operating profits while three witnessed a downturn, according to provisional data for the January-June 2017 period.

The data of the rest were not immediately available.

In the final count, the amount of profits may be a little higher or lower, said officials of different commercial banks.

Un-audited operating profits, however, don't indicate the actual financial position of a bank as the banks have to leave aside funds for provisioning bad debts and taxes payable to the government.

The rising trend in credit practically in the private sector has helped the commercial banks pick up their operating profits in the first half of the year comparing to the same period last year, according to the bankers.

Meanwhile, private sector credit growth increased further in April due to higher trade financing for settling import payment obligations, they added.

It rose to 16.21 per cent in April, which was close to the target set by the Bangladesh Bank (BB), from 16.06 per cent in March, according to the central bank figures. It was 15.88 per cent in February.

The monetary policy for the January-June period of the just-concluded fiscal year had set the private sector credit growth target at 16.50 per cent.

A few number of banks have already been able to earn a significant amount from their treasury operations, they explained.

The bankers also said some banks could not perform as expected during the period under review mainly due to an increase in their volume of non-performing loans (NPLs).

The volume of classified loans in the country's banking system jumped by more than 18 per cent to Tk 734.09 billion during the January-March period of this year from Tk 621.72 billion in the preceding quarter.

Talking to the FE, Mehmood Husain, managing director and chief executive officer of NRB Bank Limited, said there is a twin-effect of classified loans in the banking system.

"The banks will have to keep the interest earned from classified loans to their interest-suspense account, instead of taking it into profit account," the senior banker explained.

Besides, the banks will have to ensure required provisioning against total classified loans from their profits, he added.

The falling trend in interest rate spread has also pushed down the overall operational profits of the banks, another senior executive of a PCB told the FE.

The weighted average spread between lending and deposit rates offered by the commercial banks came down to 4.65 per cent in April 2017 from 4.72 per cent in January last.

The private banker expects that the operating profits may rise in the second half of this year if the banks are able to reduce the amount of NPLs by gearing up their recovery drive across the country.

The operating profits of Pubali Bank Ltd rose to Tk 4.60 billion during the period under review from Tk 2.97 billion in the same period of 2016.

Bank Asia Ltd and Mercantile Bank Ltd earned Tk 3.06 billion and Tk 3.25 billion as operating profits against Tk 2.79 billion and Tk 2.78 billion respectively.

The operating profits of National Bank Ltd fell to more than Tk 3.0 billion in the first six months (H1) of this calendar year from Tk 5.85 billion in the same period of the last year.

Southeast Bank Ltd earned Tk 4.11 billion as operating profits during the period under review against Tk 4.20 billion in the H1 of 2016.

The operating profits of Dutch-Bangla Bank Ltd rose to Tk 3.50 billion in the first six months of this year from Tk 3.24 billion in the same period of the last year.

Al-Arafah Islami Bank Ltd earned Tk 3.60 billion as operating profits against Tk 3.50 billion while operating profits of EXIM Bank Ltd rose to Tk 3.20 billion from Tk 2.55 billion.

NCC Bank Ltd made operating profits worth Tk 2.37 billion in the H1 of 2017 against Tk 2.01 billion in the same period of the last year.

Meghna Bank Ltd made operating profits worth Tk 670 million in the H1 of 2017 against Tk 580 million in the same period of the last year while South Bangla Agriculture Bank Ltd earned Tk 650 million against Tk 700 million.

The operating profits of Shahjalal Islami Bank Ltd rose to Tk 1.73 billion during period under review against Tk 1.59 billion in the same period of last year.

Premier Bank Ltd made operating profits worth Tk 2.50 billion in the H1 of 2017 against Tk 2.00 billion in the same period of the last year while First Security Islami Bank Ltd earned Tk 2.22 billion against Tk 1.67 billion.

The operating profits of Mutual Trust Bank Ltd rose to Tk 2.09 billion during the period under review from around Tk 2.00 billion in the same period of last year.

Farmers Bank Ltd posted operating profits of Tk 420 million in the H1 of 2017 from Tk 300 million in the same period of last year while NRB Bank Ltd earned Tk 370 million against Tk 369 million.

Operating profits of Social Islami Bank Ltd (SIBL) rose to Tk 2.67 billion during the period under review from Tk 2.25 billion in the same period of last year.

Enamul Huque, Managing Director and Head of Commercial Banking, Standard Chartered Bangladesh received the \"Best Foreign Bank in Bangladesh\" and \"Best Foreign Investment Bank in Bangladesh\" awards at the FinanceAsia 2017 Awards recently.

Standard Chartered Bank Bangladesh has recently won "Best Foreign Bank in Bangladesh" and "Best Foreign Investment Bank in Bangladesh" awards at the FinanceAsia 2017 Awards. The award was handed over to Enamul Huque, Managing Director & Head, Commercial Banking, Standard Chartered Bangladesh at the award ceremony held in Hong Kong on Thursday, according to a media release.
Abrar A Anwar, CEO of Standard Chartered Bangladesh said, "For more than 112 years, it has been our privilege to be the trusted banker to the nation. We are delighted to receive these awards, which are recognition of our ability to serve our clients and customers in this market with best-in-class banking products and services, and our commitment to be a partner in progress to the nation."
Standard Chartered's pioneering role in the development of the country's financial sector, market leadership in enabling foreign trade and investment, offering innovative products and services, and introduction of best practices to the local market made the Bank favourite to win the award. This is the eighth time the Bank has been recognized as 'Best Foreign Bank in Bangladesh' by FinanceAsia since 2009. The Bank had also secured the honour at the FinanceAsia 20th Anniversary Platinum Awards held in 2016.
FinanceAsia Country Awards for Achievement celebrates excellence among the region's financial services firms. The winners of the Country Awards are chosen from the fields of local and international banking and investment banking.

Xinhua, Accra :
The World Bank (WB) has approved an International Development Association (IDA) credit facility of 85.7 million U.S.  dollars to improve education, water and sanitation in Ghana, said a statement issued from the country office of the WB here late Thursday.
It said the credit facility would be disbursed to support the Secondary Education Improvement Project (SEIP) and the Sustainable Rural Water and Sanitation Project (SRWSP).
An additional funding of 40 million dollars will also be disbursed to the SEIP to support low-performing schools in the targeted 100 SEIP districts.
World Bank Country Director for Ghana Henry Kerali said: "The proposed additional financing under the SEIP would provide support toward the achievement of better learning outcomes to over 100 additional schools, nearly doubling the number of schools targeted under the SEIP, while continuing to support activities to increase enrollment in undersubscribed schools."
The Sustainable Rural Water and Sanitation Project, on the other hand, received additional financing of 45.7 million USD to facilitate the construction of additional 20,000 household toilets to the current 22,000 and assist additional 490 communities to be open defecation-free.
The project will also finance water supply systems that could not be completed from the original SRWSP. These areas include the Northern Region (Province), the fluoride and the high salinity affected areas where access to both adequate water supply and sanitation fall far below the national average.
"The beneficiary regions under the SRWSP have high rates of poverty and the completion of the project will reduce the outbreak of diseases such as cholera and diarrhea as well as communicable diseases, leading to improvements in child health."

Arastoo Khan, Chairman, Islami Bank Bangladesh Limited presiding over the Board of Directors meeting at the bank\'s head office in the city recently. Md Abdul Hamid Mia, Managing Director and directors from home and abroad were also present.