Banking
NCC Bank signs MoU with DIU
NCC Bank Limited signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Daffodil International University (DIU) to make the students’ tuition fees payment easier through NCCB SureCash mobile banking Service in Dhaka on Wednesday.
Mohammed Nurul Amin, Managing Director and CEO of NCC Bank Limited and Md. Sabur Khan, Chairman of Daffodil International University, signed the MoU on behalf of their respective organizations, said a press release.
News:Daily Sun/15-Feb-2014
ONE Bank signs deal with Corolla Corporation
ONE Bank Limited and Corolla Corporation (BD) Limited recently signed an agreement at the corporate headquarter of the bank.
Under this agreement, Corolla Corporation will make payments through ONE Bank’s Mobile Financial Services “OK Banking” to their employees, contractors and other stakeholders across the country, said a press release.
M Fakhrul Alam, Managing Director of ONE Bank Limited and Kazi Muhaimen Ahmed, Director of Corolla Corporation (BD) Limited signed the agreement on behalf of their respective organisations.
News:Daily Sun/15-Feb-2014
5 banks’ warned of losing top AD branch licences
Bangladesh Bank has warned five scheduled banks of cancellation of authorised dealer licences of top branch of each bank over their failure to settle back-to-back inland bills against local letters of credit in line with the central bank directive.
The BB on February 5 issued separate show-cause notices to the five banks asking them to reply within 15 working days why the central bank would not cancel licences of their five AD branches, a BB official told New Age on Monday.
The errant five banks are Janata Bank, Islami Bank Bangladesh, Pubali Bank, Southeast Bank and Mercantile Bank.
The central bank identified that overdue position of the five banks in settling the inland bills remained at the top for a long time among all scheduled banks.
‘The central bank has issued the show-cause letters to the five banks as part of its online monitoring system on foreign exchange-related business of the banks,’ BB deputy governor Nazneen Sultana told New Age.
The BB will take punitive measures against the banks if they fail to give satisfactory reply to the notices, she said.
The official said that the central bank on December 23, 2013 had served another show-cause notice in connection with the overdue inland bills on 30 banks, asking them to reply to the notices by January 19, 2014.
After the issuance of the notice, a number of banks settled their inland bills in the quickest possible time, but the five banks did not take adequate measures in this connection.
The BB official said the central bank had organised a series of meeting with the banks in mid-November in which the banks had promised that they would settle the overdue inland bills within that month.
But, the banks did not keep their commitments, he said.
According to the latest BB data, Janata Bank’s overdue inland bills stood at $8.70 million as of February 9, 2014, that of Islami Bank $4.90 million, that of Pubali Bank $6.12 million, that of Southeast Bank $4.80 million and that of Mercantile Bank $13 million.
The country’s banking sector has been facing indiscipline for long due to the overdue inland bills as significant amount of funds of some banks remain stuck in the process, another BB official said.
He said the BB had already introduced an electronic monitoring system named ‘Dashboard’ to bring discipline in the foreign exchange-related business in the banking sector.
The BB issued the show-cause letters to the five banks by collecting information from the ‘Dashboard’, he said.
IBBL managing director Mohammad Abdul Mannan told New Age on Monday that his bank had already taken initiative to settle the overdue inland bills.
The BB in its February 5 letter referred to the Nawabpur AD branch of IBBL.
‘We have settled a large number of overdue bills after receiving the BB notice,’ Mannan said.
He, however, said that IBBL was one of the largest banks in terms of export and import LCs in the country.
‘So its inland bills overdue position is higher than other banks.’
Pubali Bank managing director Helal Ahmed Chowdhury told New Age that he made a commitment to the central bank on Monday that his bank would settle all inland bills by this month.
Pubali Bank has already settled a number of overdue bills in the last few days, he said.
The central bank’s show-cause letter referred to the principal branch of Pubali Bank.
Sonali to sue Hall-Mark by Feb 28
Sonali Bank is set to lodge a formal case against Hall-Mark Group by February 28 over the swindling of Tk 2,554 crore more than two years ago.
The move comes after the bank's board gave its management the deadline in a meeting last week after going through all the issues that have been holding up the process.
The scam came to light in April 2012.
About the delay in filing the case, Sonali Bank Managing Director Pradip Kumar Dutta blamed it on flaws in Hall-Mark's credit documents.
Over the past one year, Sonali took opinions from six lawyers about proceeding with legal action against the disgraced company to recover the funds.
Finally the board decided to lodge two cases to retrieve the money -- one with Artha Rin Adalat and another with a civil court.Hall-Mark took out loans of Tk 2,964 crore, of which it has already adjusted Tk 410 crore.
As a result, the company still owes the state-run bank Tk 2,554 crore, for which a case with Artha Rin Adalat would be filed.
Sonali Bank found that of the Tk 2,554 crore, it has necessary documents against loans worth only Tk 350 crore. The remaining sum was siphoned off using false documents.
For instance, Tk 1,000 crore was withdrawn against a “mere slip” and a case would be filed with a civil court for retrieving the money. The bank officials will also be implicated in the case as they were complicit with the forgery.
Meanwhile, the Anti-Corruption Commission has lodged 11 cases against several officials of Hall-Mark and Sonali Bank.
Janata Bank opens branch in Gopalganj
Janata Bank Limited opened its 898th branch at Muksudpur in Gopalgonj recently.
Muhammad Faruk Khan, MP of Gopalgonj-1 and former civil aviation and tourism minister, inaugurated the branch as chief guest, said a press release.
Iftikhar-Uz-Zaman, Deputy Managing Director of the bank attended the function as special guest while Md Alamgir Miah, General Manager of Divisional Office of Dhaka north, presided over the inaugural event.