The central bank issued a guideline yesterday through a circular with immediate effect

Bangladesh Bank has allowed bank account with Tk10 for the street children to save their income.

The central bank issued a guideline yesterday through a circular with immediate effect.

Bangladesh Bank will prepare a list of NGO (non government organization) who interest to conduct bank account of street children, said the circular.

Interested NGOs asked to apply to be included in the list to the Green Banking and CSR Department of Bangladesh through a scheduled bank.

NGO’s good will, credibility, experience and infrastructure facilities will be considered in case of enlistment.

No service charge will be taken from the accounts. Account holder will be allowed to conduct the account reaching the 18 years old.

Bangladesh Bank introduced a policy for school banking last year, where young people between 6-18 years can open account starting from Tk100 and use the opportunity to save their money for education, stipend money and so on.

From November 2, 2010 till December 31, 2013, some 2,86,000 school students have opened bank accounts.

News:Dhaka Tribune/10-Mar-2014

BFID yesterday asked Sonali Bank CEO Pradip Kumar Dutta to immediately suspend the Adamdighi branch manager, deputy general manager and general manager controller

The government has directed all state-owned banks to reinforce their security systems, especially at their vaults by building them with concrete and steel and setting up electronic alarm mechanism.

In the wake of the latest heist at a Sonali Bank branch in Bogra, it has also asked the bank’s authorities to take action against their high officials and the branch’s control officer after investigation.

In a letter to Sonali Bank CEO Pradip Kumar Dutta, the Bank and Financial Institutions Division (BFID) yesterday asked him to immediately suspend the Adamdighi branch manager, deputy general manager and general manager controller.

Signed by BFID’s Deputy Secretary M Rajnul Huda, the letter said primary investigation had revealed that the high officials of the branch had lack of awareness and were irresponsible.

The letter also said security should be increased at all branches of Sonali Bank across the country during weekends and general holidays.

Robbers looted Tk32 lakh from the Adamdighi upazila branch of the bank in the district by digging a tunnel to the bank’s vault room on Saturday.

The BFID yesterday asked the board of directors of Sonali Bank to form teams to review the security at all the branches of the bank.

It asked the Adamdighi branch authority to lodge a general diary (GD) with the local police against the owners of the building housing the branch, and shops and business establishments around it.

The directives to Sonali Bank and other state-owned banks were to prevent recurrence of such heists, Finance Minister AMA Muhith yesterday told reporters after a meeting of the purchase committee at the Secretariat.

He said the internal accounting, auditing and security of the banks had now become stronger following the Hall-Mark scam and the robbery at the Kishoreganj Sonali Bank branch, but incidents of digging tunnel for bank heist would not stop soon.

He said officers and other staff members of the state-owned banks would not change overnight – it would take 10-15 years even after increasing their salaries, he said.

The finance minister said the government had already increased their salaries by 65% and the next pay scale might have another 62% raise.

Following investigation into the robbery of Tk16.9 crore from Sonali Bank’s Kishoreganj branch in a similar manner, the BFID suggested 10 security measures for the six state-owned banks – Sonali, Janata, Agrani, Rupali, BASIC Bank and Bangladesh Development Bank Limited.

The directives included setting up of closed circuit cameras in vault rooms, having vault room on the first floor of the branches, and getting the vault rooms of all ventilations.

The BFID also directed Sonali Bank to move its chest branches to their own houses or land and arranging security as per the Bangladesh Bank’s directives.

It directed transfer of a Sonali Bank branch in Chandpur to a separate building immediately as there was a hotel on the ground floor of the building.

News:Dhaka Tribune/10-Mar-2014

In a blatant breach of regulatory law, many Sonali Bank branches keep seven to eight times the money permitted in their vaults and that, too, all uninsured.
The Bangladesh Bank came up with the findings after inspecting eight chest branches (treasury branches that also keep other banks' money) out of Sonali Bank's 66 such branches across the country.
“We found some of the vaults at these branches have nearly Tk 200 crore against a capacity of Tk 25 crore, which is very risky for a bank,” said a BB official involved with the inspection done between January and February.

The inspection also found that some of these branches maintain locker facilities inside the vaults, exposing them to robberies as any locker user can take a chance.
A principal officer of Sonali Bank's Bogra Corporate Branch said branches in upazilas and rural areas were not permitted to reserve over Tk 15 lakh in their vaults. But due to the shortage of vehicles, small branches often cannot send the additional amount to the secured vault at the district branch.
While the state-run Sonali Bank has shown sheer negligence in insuring the money in its vaults, private banks fully comply with the central bank's regulations.

“Each and every vault [of private banks] is covered by insurance,” Anis A Khan, managing director of Mutual Trust Bank, told The Daily Star.
In recent months, Sonali Bank has become the ultimate target of theft and robbery.
On Friday night, miscreants stole Tk 30 lakh from its Adamdighi branch in Bogra. On January 26, the bank witnessed a heist of Tk 16.4 crore from the vault of Rathkhola branch in Kishoreganj. Earlier in 1994, Tk 10 lakh was robbed from one of its Kishoreganj branches.
The bank is also riddled with financial scams, the biggest one being the Tk 2,686 crore swindled out of its Ruposhi Bangla Hotel branch in the capital by Hall-Mark between 2010 and 2012. Five other companies took away Tk 1,000 crore during the same period.In September last year, its corporate branch at Shilpa Bhaban lost $250,000 (Tk 2 crore) to London-based cyber crooks, who allegedly hacked into the bank's security system and transferred the money to an account in Turkey.
Talking to reporters at his office in the capital yesterday, Sonali Bank Managing Director Pradip Kumar Dutta said, “We have taken a series of measures to reduce risks of robbery or heist at our branches.” 
As part of the move, 61 inspection teams have been formed at the bank's 61 regional offices to assess the situation, including security issues.
“Ten-inch walls and floors will be built at the branches that are deemed risky by the inspection teams," he said, adding that branches that are on ground floors would be shifted to upper floors.
Contacted, a top BB official said Sonali Bank had been showing "utter negligence" in safeguarding depositors' money.
“The bank doesn't insure the money in its vaults, saying it costs additional money,” the official told this correspondent last night.
He said the central bank recently wrote to the finance ministry, asking it to take immediate action against the Sonali Bank management.
Talking to BBC Bangla, BB Deputy Governor SK Sur Chowdhury yesterday said they had asked all the banks to ensure the safety of depositors' money.
“Things are happening due to banks' failure,” he added.
Meanwhile, police yesterday detained six more people in connection with the heist on Friday when Tk 30.8 lakh was looted from the Adamdighi branch through a 30 feet long tunnel being dug from a nearby furniture shop. The perpetrators used blow torches to break open the locker in the vault.
So far, 10 people have been caught in this connection.
They are furniture shop owner Ashraful Islam, his employee Shaheen Mia, carpenters Nazrul Islam, Shafiqul Islam, Mridul Mia, Abdul Wahed, welder Abdul Latif, two Ansar members in charge of the bank's security Purna Dev Sarkar and Milon Mia and former security guard Ruhul Amin.
Amin quit his job on February 28 citing personal reasons, said Shamsuddin Sharif, manager of the branch.
Police were yet to recover the money.
Sonali Bank and Bangladesh Bank have formed two committees to probe the heist.

News:The Daily Star/10-Mar-2014

Sarwar A Chowdhury

Listed banks are demonstrating a mixed trend in dividends declared for 2013.
Of the 30 listed banks, 10 have so far distributed profits to the shareholders; four banks declared higher dividends than last year, two have declared lower dividends, while four have given the same dividends as last year, according to data from Dhaka Stock Exchange.
Although 2013 was a tough year for banks as business activities were hampered by political unrest, the central bank's move to relax loan rules at the end of the year helped them recover losses, a banker said yesterday.
In a notice on December 23, Bangladesh Bank suggested lenders reconsider loan rescheduling and down payments until June this year on a case-by-case basis for borrowers in all sectors affected by political instability.
“The banks benefitted from the central bank's move. And so, there was a big shift in the fourth quarter than the previous ones,” said Mohammad Mamdudur Rashid, deputy managing director of Brac Bank, which announced higher dividends.
Overall, banks that saw better income than the previous year are giving higher dividends for 2013, he added.
“In our case, our local loan business was almost similar to the previous year, but our offshore banking business was good.”
However, banking share prices fell on the trading board last week and continued the fall yesterday, as corporate declarations from the sector could not fulfill retail investors' expectations.
Banking shares fell by 3.16 percent last week on the premier bourse, disappointing investors the most. It declined 1.67 percent yesterday.

News:The Daily Star/10-Mar-2014