First Security Islami Bank Limited (FSIBL) opened zonal office in Sylhet on Saturday.

AAM Zakaria, Managing Director of FSIBL, inaugurated the zonal office, said a press release.

Syed Waseque Md Ali and Syed Habib Hasnat, Deputy Managing Directors of the bank, Raisuddin Ansary, Zonal Head of Sylhet Zone, Muhammad Abdul Basit, Manager of Sylhet branch and other branch managers of Sylhet Zone attended the function.

Dr. Khondoker Bazlul Hoque, Chairman of Agrani Bank Limited, speaks at the Zonal Heads and Corporate Branch Managers Annual Conference-2014 in Dhaka on Saturday.

Agrani Bank Limited organised Annual Conference-2014 for zonal heads and corporate branch managers in Dhaka on Saturday.

Dr. Khondoker Bazlul Hoque, Chairman of the bank inaugurated the auspicious ceremony as chief guest, said a press release.

Directors of the bank Arastoo Khan, AK Gulam Kibria, FCA, Engineer Md. Abdus Sabur, KMN Manjurul Hoque Lablu, Prof. Dr. Abdur Rouf Sarder, Shameem Ahsan and Altaf Hossain Molla were present.

Investors exchanged the stock valued Tk3.3 crore at the last trading session of the week

Shares of state-owned Rupali Bank Limited saw a price hike of 10% at Dhaka Stock Exchange yesterday.

Investors exchanged the stock valued Tk3.3 crore at the last trading session of the week.

Brokers attributed the price hike with the bank’s better performance and strong fundamentals.

The management disclosed a profit of Tk5.64 crore in its unaudited third quarterly report ending in September last year against a loss of Tk26.7 crore in the same period of 2012. Negative net interest income during the third quarter of 2012 is the reason for the downfall of the bank.

Nevertheless, the bank showed higher net interest income during the first nine months of 2012 than the same period of 2013.

The management failed to book higher profit in the first nine months of 2013 than a year earlier due to higher provision in 2012.

Bank’s consolidated net profit was Tk80.2 crore after tax during the first nine months of 2013, which is higher than Tk45 crore profit after tax same period in 2012.

In November 24 last year, the bank informed that it has signed a trust deed on November 21, 2013 regarding “vanguard AML Rupali Bank balanced fund” with ICB.

“It may be mentioned that Rupali Bank Limited approved a proposal to invest in a Mutual fund totalling Tk200 crore. Rupali Bank will provide an amount of 40 crore as sponsor,” added the disclosure posted on the DSE website.

As of 2012 year-end, the stocks had a restated net asset value of Tk64.27 each whereas the current closing of the stocks price is Tk78.1 each. 

Serbia’s Kapital Bank asks Bangladesh to repay $2m 

Kapital Bank of Serbia has asked Bangladesh to repay US$2m loan which were taken before Serbia broke up from Yugoslavia in 1992.

Yugoslavia’s Jugo Bank was renamed as Kapital Bank of Serbia after the break-up.

 Bangladesh’s government is now checking if the loan taken from Yugoslavia’s Jugo Bank is still valid after those long years and the secession. 

“We have asked the authority of Agrani Bank to check if the loan is still valid,” said a senior official of Bank and Financial Institutions Division.

The state-run Agrani Bank is part of the projects which have remained stalled since the break-up.

Economic Relations Division sent a letter to the banking division seeking information about the loans. 

“The contract was signed between Bangladesh and former Yugoslavia for a development project, not with Serbia’s Kapital Bank,” Dr Khondoker Bazlul Hoque, chairman of Agrani Bank.

He said: “We won’t recognise legal entities of Serbia’s Kapital Bank and Serbian firms.”  

In 1981, the government of Yugoslavia started a project titled “Dry dock and heavy steel structure” in Bangladesh. The contract of the project signed between two state-owned firms of former Yugoslavia - Milutionvicpimco and Brodimpeks - and Bangladesh’s state-owned firms Ship Building Corporation and Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corporation (BCIC).

The total cost of the project was $4.1m which taken from Juga Bank as loan. Chalna port authority and former Ship Building Corporation and BCIC repaid $3m of the amount as of June 30, 1990.

Later in 1992, the United Nations imposed sanction on financial transactions in Yugoslavia as civil war erupted in the country. In 1996, the UN lifted the sanction.

In 2012, Serbia’s Kaptial Bank sent a letter to Bangladesh’s Agrani Bank to repay rest of the loan.

Banking Division wanted to know from Agrani Bank that if Bangladesh’s government at that time gave any assurance to Yugoslavian government to repay the whole amount of the loans.

It also sought information about Ivn Milutionvic-Pimco whether the firm is the genuine successor of the Yugoslavia’s former state-owned firms Milutionvicpimco and Brodimpeks.

The division wanted to know when Jugo Bank was declared insolvent by commercial court of Belgrade. 

A Rouf Chowdhury, Chairman of Bank Asia Limited, distributes blankets among cold-hit villagers of Malkhanagor in Sirajdikhan upazila of Munshigonj district recently.

Bank Asia Limited under its CSR programme distributed blankets and warm clothes among cold-hit and marginalised poor in different parts of the country.

The areas are Munshigonj, Dinajpur, Rajshahi, Bogra, Naogaon, Pabna, Jessore, Barisal, Kishoreganj, Noakhali and Chandpur districts, said a press release.