Bangladesh Bank made the directive through a circular yesterday

All the bank branches in fourth and fifth-phase upazila polls areas will remain closed on March 23 and 31.

Bangladesh Bank made the directive through a circular yesterday to facilitate the bankers exercise their voting rights.

The fourth phase of upazila elections will be held on March 23 in 92 upazilas while the fifth phase will take place on March 31 in 74 upazilas.

News:Dhaka Tribune/20-Mar-2014

The orientation programme of the newly-recruited Management Trainees of Prime Bank Limited was held recently at the bank’s HR Training and Development Center (HR TDC).

Quazi A.S.M. Anisul Kabir, Deputy Managing Director and COO of Prime Bank Limited attended the programme as chief guest, said a press re;ease.

News:Daily Sun/20-Mar-2014

United Commercial Bank Limited organised a grand get-together for the customers styled ‘Achievers’ Night’ at a hotel in Dhaka on Tuesday.

M A Hashem, Chairman of UCB attended the function. He thanked the clients of the bank for their trust and faith on UCB, said a press release.

Muhammed Ali, MD, Sharif Zahir, Vice-Chairman, Anisuzzaman Chowdhury, Chairman, EC, Lt. Gen. (Retd.) Abu Tayeb Md Zahirul Alam, Chairman of Audit Committee, among others attended the get together.

News:Daily Sun/20-Mar-2014

Shams Zaman has been appointed corporate and investment banking head of Citibank NA, Bangladesh, the bank said in a statement yesterday.

Zaman will be responsible for Citi's corporate, global subsidiaries, financial institutions, public sector and investment banking businesses in Bangladesh.

Zaman joined Citi in 2004 and worked at Peregrine and Union Capital for seven years prior to that. He has

experience in corporate finance, credit risk, marketing and negotiation, treasury and strategic management.

He holds an MBA from Victoria University Australia and a BBA from North South University in Bangladesh.

The central bank yesterday offered monetary incentives to banks to join its national payment switch (NPS), in efforts to give it a boost.

From April 1, a card issuing bank will give only Tk 20 to the ATM-installer-bank for each interbank transaction; the rate is Tk 25 at present, Bangladesh Bank said in a notice yesterday.

But no card issuing bank will be allowed to charge a customer more than Tk 10 for each transaction, down from as much as Tk 25 at the moment.

“This is a good move, both for the banks and clients,” said Abul Kashem Mohammad Shirin, deputy managing director of Dutch-Bangla Bank.

More banks will now be encouraged to join the NPS, he added.

BB has taken the initiative to strengthen NPS in order to facilitate interbank electronic payments originating

from different delivery channels—automated teller machines, point of sales, internet, and mobile applications.

The main objective of NPS is to create a common platform among the existing shared switches already built-up by different private sector operators.

NPS will facilitate the expansion of the card based payment networks substantially and promote e-commerce throughout the country.

The central bank launched NPS in December 2012 with a $5 million financial support from the World Bank, but

only three banks—Dutch-Bangla, Southeast and Pubali—have so far joined the payment switch.
Most other banks use Q-cash or Dutch-Bangla payment gateways.

The volume of transactions using an ATM booth stood at Tk 100,000 crore in 2012, up from the previous year's Tk 68,000 crore, according to data from BB.

Of the 47 scheduled banks (which does not include the nine new banks), 40 provide ATM services.

An ATM booth owning bank can charge Tk 5 from a client for a balance inquiry or mini statement, according to

the notice.  

“This move will encourage banks to set up more ATM booths, which will ultimately help expand banking services to a wider segment of people,” the central bank said.  

The central bank said the advantages of this new payment platform are enormous and e-commerce will

spread across the country. Even then, BB will not charge a penny from the customers, it said.

Once all banks in Bangladesh join the NPS, a customer using a credit or debit card of any bank will be able to draw cash from any ATM and POS in the country. Transaction costs will significantly go down as the

transactions will be routed through the NPS instead of Visa, Master or Amex card networks abroad.

Moreover, clients will be able to make purchases with cards through the internet and web portals within the country.

“Visa and Master card authorities will lose their earnings from Bangladesh as they will not get any network fee,” said Shirin of Dutch-Bangla.