Finance Minister AMA Muhith handing over scholarship awarding letters to one of the recipients as the chief guest in the city Saturday.

Dutch-Bangla Bank Limited (DBBL) has awarded scholarship awarding letters to 4,057 more poor but meritorious students. 

With this the bank has cleared the seventh phase of its long-term project to provide financial assistance worth Tk 1.02 billion to 30,000 students by 2016, according to the officials. 

Finance Minister AMA Muhith handed over the scholarship awarding letters to the recipients as the chief guest at a ceremony in the city Saturday.

Ambassador of Kingdom of the Netherlands in Bangladesh Gerben de Jong was present at the function as the special guest, while Chairman of the executive committee of DBBL board of directors Sayem Ahmed presided over it.

Managing Director of the bank KS Tabrez, among others, was present at the function.

The students were selected from those who have passed secondary school certificate (SSC) or equivalent exams this year and are now studying at the higher secondary certificate (HSC) level at different educational institutions across the country.

Under the programme, each of the students will get Tk 27,500 yearly, and the renewal for the next academic year (2nd year) will depend on their first year's academic results, the bank officials added.

Lauding the DBBL's scholarship programme, the finance minister said, "It is a great initiative, which is equivalent to that of the state level."

He also appreciated the bank's continuous humanitarian and welfare activities and termed this scholarship programme a unique example of helping the meritorious and needy students.

Mr Muhith advised the scholarship awardees to utilise the fund and flourish their talent by properly educating themselves. The minister also expected that all the corporate bodies of the country would come forward with such programmes for the benefit of the society. 

Mr Gerben de Jong appreciated the Dutch-Bangla Bank Foundation for its generous initiative to build the future of the underprivileged students, facilitating the long-term development of the country's human resources and also helping the country to achieve the middle-income status in the next decade. 

The ambassador also congratulated the students, who got the DBBL's scholarship this year. 

Speaking on the occasion, Mr Sayem Ahmed said the DBBL, as a responsible corporate body since its inception, has been playing a pioneering role in implementing social and philanthropic programmes to help the disadvantaged people of the society.

A number of sectors including education, healthcare and rehabilitation of distressed people are on the priority list of the bank for carrying out its social and philanthropic activities, he said. 

Ninety per cent of the total DBBL's scholarships go to the students, who came from the rural areas, and at least 50 per cent are female students, the chairman added.

Mohammed Nurul Amin, Chairman of NCCB Securities and Financial Services and Managing Director of NCC Bank Ltd, presides over a meeting at the company’s head office in Dhaka recently.

NCCB Securities and Financial Services Limited organised the 3rd annual general meeting (AGM) at the company’s head office in Dhaka recently.

Mohammed Nurul Amin, Chairman of NCCB Securities and Financial Services and Managing Director of NCC Bank, presided over the meeting, said a press release.

AK Md Siddique, Gazi Hasan Mahmud and Md Mizanur Rahman, Directors of NCCB Securities, Md Abdul Bari Sarker, CEO of the company, and AKM Nurul Islam, Company Secretary of NCC Bank, attended the meeting.

M Kamran Hamid, Deputy General Manager of BASIC Bank Limited, seen among other officials of the bank at a workshop on ‘General Banking’ at the bank’s training institute in Dhaka recently.

BASIC Bank Limited organised a workshop on “General Banking” for its assistant officers and officers at the bank’s training institute in Dhaka recently.

M Kamran Hamid, Deputy General Manger and Principal of the Training Institute was present as chief guest, said a press release on Saturday.

Asoke Bandhu Das, Vice Principal of the institute and other members of the faculty were present at the workshop.

Some 25 officers of BASIC Bank participated in the workshop.

AAM Zakaria, Managing Director, First Security Islami Bank Ltd, hands over a computer to a student at a function in Dhaka on Saturday.

First Security Islami Bank Limited (FSIBL) donated computers for the education of poor and disable meritorious students.

The donation was made during a seminar styled “Disable people deserve the equality in our society” and “Scholarships to the intellectually disabled poor students” at CIRDAP Auditorium in Dhaka on Saturday.

AAM Zakaria, Managing Director, First Security Islami Bank Ltd, handed over those computers to the beneficiaries.

The central bank plans to exempt foreign banks from the mandatory requirement of a subsidiary to participate in the stockmarket for the sake of development of the country’s capital market.

Bangladesh Bank has already sought opinions of the banking division of the finance ministry in this regard.
“If they are not exempted from the related article of the banking companies law, portfolio investment might be hampered,” the central bank said in its letter to the finance ministry.

The recently amended law has made it compulsory for banks to form a separate subsidiary if they want to give share-market services—a time-consuming and tricky process for the foreign banks.

To form the subsidiary, the foreign banks would require approval from their headquarters, which, in turn, would require authorisation from their regulators.

As the size of the capital market in Bangladesh is still small, the headquarters of the foreign banks are unlikely to give permission for separate subsidiaries.

A high official of the central bank said among the foreign banks in Bangladesh four have been providing custodian services to foreign multinational banks and financial institutions in the share market.

The amount of portfolio investment of the foreign financial institutions through Standard Chartered Bank, Citibank NA, HSBC and the Commercial Bank of Ceylon is more than $1.2 billion.

“As these banks account for the lion’s share of the external portfolio investment in the country, the problem caused by the recently amended law should be resolved,” said the central bank letter.

“Otherwise, the stability of the stockmarket might be hampered,” it added.

The central bank in consultation with the government can exempt any bank from setting up the subsidiary.