Md. Ehsan Khasru, Managing Director and CEO of Prime Bank Limited, launches "Prime Cash Card Services at Prime Bank ATM Booths" at the bank's head office on Wednesday.

 

Prime Bank Limited has launched "Prime Cash Card Services at Prime Bank ATM Booths" at the head office of the bank on Wednesday.

Md. Ehsan Khasru, Managing Director and CEO of Prime Bank Limited inaugurated the booth, said a press release.

Habibur Rahman, SEVP and Head of Retail Banking, Md. Iqbal Hossain, SEVP and Head of IT Infrastructure and Development, Md. Shahadat Hossain, EVP and Head of IT Operations, Ferdousi Sultana, EVP and Head of Public Relations, Salahuddin Ahmed, SVP and Head of ADC, Amir Hossain Majumdar, SVP and Head of Cards, and Md. Tofazzul Hossain, Head of Marketing of the bank, Rashed Mahmud, CEO of Dipon Consultancy Services and Md. Shafquat Matin, Director were present at the function.

From now on, Prime Cash Card holders will be able to withdraw cash from all ATM booths of Prime Bank Limited.

Prime Bank has launched 'Prime Cash', the first-ever Biometric Smart Card in Bangladesh to provide secured banking services to the unbanked people of the country.

News:Daily Sun Bangladesh/5-Sep-2013

ndustries ministry has recommended that in the new law for the Grameen Bank, three members should make a quorum in the board of directors of the micro-credit institution and the chairman of the board should arrange board meetings every three months. In the existing Grameen Bank Ordinance 1983, the government, being a 25% stakeholder, appoints three members to the Grameen Bank board of directors. However, in the ordinance, four members make a quorum. Under the ordinance, Grameen Bank has 12 members, nine of whom are elected from the bank’s female stakeholders. On August 14, an inter-ministerial meeting at the finance ministry decided to finalise the procedures to turn the 1983 ordinance that now governs the organisation into a law. Bangladesh Bank, industries ministry and NGO bureau submitted their recommendations on the issue to the banking division this week. After the meeting, Banking Secretary Md Aslam Alam had told reporters that after receiving suggestions from different stakeholders, a summary would be submitted to the finance minister for approval and then to the cabinet. Industries ministry also recommended that the educational qualification of the three government officials who would be selected as board members should be set in the new law. Bangladesh Bank has opined that there should be no bar on transaction of securities and money for persons and organisations by the Nobel Prize winning microcredit pioneer Grameen Bank, since many financial institutions that are not scheduled banks also hold similar transactions. The central bank has submitted its recommendations to the finance ministry’s banking division, following the division’s request to all stakeholders of Grameen Bank to give their opinions on a new Grameen Bank law within August 25. Officials in the banking division said they did not want Grameen Bank to operate as a scheduled bank because it operates now under the ordinance as a financial organisation with NGO motives. Finance Minister AMA Muhith told the Dhaka Tribune on Monday that the government would try to protect the “originality” of the microcredit organisation Grameen Bank. The central bank recommended that any person and organisation should be allowed to open accounts in Grameen Bank and any person and organisation as mediators for opening of accounts should be encouraged. The central bank also advised that city corporations, municipalities and cantonments, which do not have any Grameen Bank operations at present, should be included in the new law. It also suggested that the new law should exclude the Bangladesh Bank Order which is included in the existing ordinance and the Banking Companies Act 1991 should replace the existing Bank Companies Ordinance 1962. Grameen Bank should follow the Bangladesh Accounting Standard to prepare its financial reports and Bangladesh Bank directives should be strictly maintained, as per the recommendations. The profits of Grameen Bank should be used to off-set its bad loan and doubtful debts, the central bank suggested. Industries ministry opined that the definition of a landless person should be changed to owner of 20 decimal land or less instead of 50 decimal or less, and also someone who may inherit land should not be classified as landless. The ministry also said the new law should have clarifications on what conditions would constitute the easy loan conditions for the landless. The industries ministry recommendations were signed by Assistant Secretary Anwar Hossain of the ministry of industries. The Bangladesh Bank recommendations were signed by General Manager of Banking Regulation and Policy Department Chowdhury Md. Feroz Bin Alam. The ministry recommended that Grameen Bank could be allowed to operate businesses under the new law but not outside its scope. The banking division three months ago formed a committee comprising of Supreme Court’s Additional Attorney General Murad Raza and IFIC Bank Managing Director M Shah Alam Sarwar to make recommendations on the Grameen Bank Law 2013 which will replace the Grameen Bank Ordinance 1983. The committee submitted its recommendations to the division on June 16, suggesting increasing Grameen Bank’s capital to Tk3.5bn from the existing Tk30m and its paid-up capital to Tk3bn from the existing Tk59m. They suggested that nine directors should be elected after being scrutinised by two electorates appointed by the Grameen Bank management. News:Dhaka Tribune Bangladesh/30-Aug-2013

Most Bangladeshi migrant workers are unaware of the services provided by the Probashi Kallyan Bank due to lack of publicity about its activities. The management of the specialised bank has not taken any initiative to publicise the institution since it was established in 2011 to benefit overseas wage earners, official sources said. The bank is meant to facilitate expatriate Bangladeshis to remit money at low cost or invest in the country, and provide low-interest loans to workers who are aspiring to go abroad or have returned home. A bank official, who asked not to be named, observed that being a government-owned bank, the management could use state-run BTV and Bangladesh Radio to advertise the bank’s facilities. So far, about 2,500 job seekers have borrowed money from the bank to go abroad, while at least 100 returning migrant workers have received loans for rehabilitation. One such returnee, Al-Amin, has been unemployed since returning home from Libya during the 2011 civil war. Al-Amin, from Netrokona, worked as a construction worker in the North African country for nearly two years. He now wants to run a small business at home, but has been unable to do as he has no capital. “I didn’t know that the Probashi Kallyan Bank provides loans at low interest,” he said, while talking to the Dhaka Tribune over phone Friday. “How much money does the bank provide for small enterprises?” Al-Amin enquired, adding that he needed at least Tk200,000 to start a business. Monirul Islam, from Khulna, plans to go abroad to work as an electrician through a private recruiting agency. He said he was afraid as he does not know how will he manage the migration cost. When this correspondent informed him that he could get a soft loan at only 9% interest from the expatriates’ welfare bank, he said he had never heard about it. “It is necessary to publicise the activities of the bank, but bureaucrats manage the bank,” Tasneem Siddiqui, a director of the bank, said over phone Friday. Tasneem, who is also the founding chair of Refugee and Migratory Movements Research Unit, suggested that people trained in banking should manage the bank. News:Dhaka tribune Bangladesh/31-Aug-2013

The Prime Bank board of directors has disapproved the bank management for charging the clients unlawfully and warned of refraining from such wanton actions. The bank also sent a letter to Bangladesh Bank on Sunday, seeking apology for their mistake in deducting money from clients’ accounts as charges of different services, which goes against the law. Recently, the central bank detected that Prime Bank realised Tk250m “illegally” from its account holders in the name of service charges. The bank deducted Tk230 per account – Tk200 as account statement generation fee and Tk30 as VAT – from all types of accounts like savings, current and special notice deposit (SND). It had around 1.2m accounts being maintained in 117 branches and 15 SME branches. Even after having realised the charges, it was not included in the “schedule of charges” published on its website. Meanwhile, the Prime Bank returned Tk260m to its nearly 800,000 clients’ accounts, following which the central bank through a letter issued on July 18 asked the bank to initiate action by August 5 against its officials involved in the illegal activities. In its replay through a letter, Prime Bank said the board reproved the management for such mistake and strongly warned it of not repeating the practice in future. “Chairman informed the meeting that the authorities of the central bank were not happy at the management response, regretting their actions on deduction of various charges from the customer’s account without following due procedures. They also advised taking administrative action against the offenders upon their identification,’’ the letter reads. The bank board expressed resentment and strongly criticised the wanton actions by the management. The board also decided to hear management views on the issue for further decision, according to the letter. On enquiry with the bank’s managing director and the entire senior management, the board deeply regretted the actions and admitted that despite being a collective decision, it was a mistake on their part. The management assured not to repeat such actions which might prove against the interest of general depositors and violation of Bangladesh Bank or the board directives. The board hoped that such strong warning to the management shall deter them from taking any such decision in future, which in any manner proves violation of the directives of the competent authorities or interest of the depositors, according to the letter. News:Dhaka Tribune Bangladesh/2-Sep-2013

The World Bank mission observed that Bangladesh’s state-owned commercial banks may face massive problems in international business due to failure in following global standard. The observation was made in the aide-mémoire of Bangladesh Financial Sector Mission of the global lender during its visit last month. According to the mission, the foreign banks may refuse to open letter of credit (LC) with the Bangladeshi state-run banks because of poor state of operation. However, the banking division secretary saw the mission’s observation nothing new. He said the World Bank usually comes up with such concerns and sets conditions when the country needs fund. “The World Bank mission, as usual, has expressed deep concerns about the performance of the state-owned banks,” said Banking Division Secretary Dr Aslam Alam. He said: “When we need fund, the World Bank presents tough conditions which are usually impossible to implement.” The mission said due to huge capital shortfall the state-owned banks could not maintain Basel II and Basel III requirements. Under the Basel framework, the commercial banks maintain the Liquidity Coverage Ratio (LCR) and Net Stable Funding Ratio (NSFR). In LCR, the commercial banks will maintain high quality liquid assets that can be converted into cash to meet its liquidity needs for 30 calendar days and in NSFR the banks follow a new standard aiming to limit over-reliance on short-term wholesale funding assessment of liquidity risk across all on and off-balance sheet items. The members of mission led by financial sector expert Shamsuddin Ahmed included financial sector experts Niraj Verma, Shah Nur Quayum, Damodaran Krishnamurti and Programme Assistant of World Bank Bridget Rosario. They stayed in Dhaka on 1-8 August. The statistics showed Sonali Bank and Janata Bank had incurred losses of Tk12.8bn and Tk5.4bn respectively in 2012, but Agrani Bank and Rupali Bank made profits of Tk6.8bn and Tk1.3bn respectively in the same year. Banking Division officials said the state-owned commercial banks have been making loss for a long time. According to them, mismanagement was a major reason behind the loss. They said some voluntary works the banks had carried out on behalf of government were are also responsible for the chronic problem. Due to influence of the government high-ups, the state-run banks have to approve large amount of loans to the corrupt businesses who present fake documents. Most of such loans become default, putting the banking sector in trouble. Besides, the loan scams of Hall-Mark and Bismillah Group left a long-time scar on the country’s banking sector. News:Dhaka Tribune Bangladesh/2-Sep-2013