Parvin Mahmud, Director of Janata Bank Limited, has resigned from the bank board as she said, she could not make time for the job.

She sent the resignation letter to Dr Abul Barakat, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the bank, Wednesday.

After receiving the letter, Janata Bank authorities sent a copy of it to the Banking and Financial Institutions Division of the Finance Ministry.

The letter revealed that Parvin Mahmud joined the state-owned Janata Bank Limited on March 21, 2012. She could not afford time for the bank’s board.

Bank sources said, after being appointed as a director, Parvin attended only two meetings of the bank board.

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The central bank along with Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services (BASIS) is going to organise an e-commerce week on Saturday to create mass awareness and increase the volume of e-transaction in the country.

People are not buying online even when the opportunity exists, and mass awareness is required to encourage online shopping, said Nazneen Sultana, deputy governor of Bangladesh Bank, at a press briefing at BASIS office in the capital yesterday.

The inauguration of the e-commerce week will be held at The Westin Hotel in Dhaka.

Sultana said currently people can do online shopping domestically. The central bank does not permit overseas shopping, she said. "But in some cases, banks can allow its accountholders to do that."

She said the central bank has already established national payment switch and connected three banks, which will help online payment.

"Other banks will be connected too. After a couple of months, Bangladesh Bank will set up national payment gateway," she said.

Online shopping is more secure than with debit or credit cards at any shop as the customers pay directly to the banks rather the online portal, said Shameem Ahsan, convenor of the week.

The central bank has developed infrastructure and it is time to use it for electronic business or trade, said Ashim Kumar Dasgupta, executive director of Bangladesh Bank.

More than two crore people are involved in mobile banking which will increase the opportunity of online shopping, Dasgupta said.

The Bangladesh Bank on Tuesday introduced three software solutions to monitor banks’ activities relating to purchases of inland and foreign documentary bills for letters of credit and flow of inward and outward remittances to ensure transparency in the foreign exchange transaction.

A BB official told New Age that authorised dealer branches of all banks had already started to send reports on foreign exchange transactions including purchases of inland documentary bills through the software products.
The three software products are online import management system, online TM form management system, and online C-form and wage earner’s remittance reporting system.

The BB official said that the AD branches were now sending reports on the purchases of the IDB and the FDB through the online import management system software daily.
The system will help the banking sector regulator handle the large-scale embezzlement like Hallmark Group-Sonali Bank scam, he said.

He said, ‘Banks will provide the BB with import-related information through the software on mandatory basis when they will give bills of acceptance to the exporter banks.’
‘After getting information from the BB, the exporter banks will decide whether they will purchase the inland bill or not,’ he said.

Earlier, banks submitted import-related data to the BB on paper on monthly basis.
‘So, the BB could not detect embezzlements in time,’ the BB official said adding that the central bank would now be able to check every bill of acceptance.

A BB investigation earlier found that the Sonali Bank’s Ruposhi Bangla Hotel branch had given Hallmark Group and five other companies Tk 3,606.48 crore in loan between 2007 and May 2012 against forged IDBP documents for local LCs.

Another BB official said that if any bank gave excess bills of acceptance to other bank, the central bank would be informed promptly because of the software.
He said that the BB would monitor the flow of outward remittances by banks through online TM management system software.

Banks have to send data relating to inward remittances through the online C-form and wage earner’s remittance reporting system software.
He said that the BB had been monitoring banks’ export data through a software solution for more than one year.

From now on, the BB will be able to monitor all types of the local and the cross border foreign exchange transactions through the software solutions, said the BB official.
He said that the money laundering would be decreased in the coming days due to the online monitoring.

Alhaj Abdul Barek, Director of Shahjalal Islami Bank Limited (SJIBL) inaugurates the 84rth branch of the bank in Jamalpur recently.

Shahjalal Islami Bank Limited (SJIBL) opened its 84rth branch in Jamalpur recently.

Alhaj Abdul Barek, Director of the bank formally inaugurated the branch as chief guest, said a press release.

Alhaj Anwer Hossain Khan, Chairman, Alhaj Syed Nurul Arefeen, Director, Abdul Mannan, sponsor shareholder, Md. Abdur Rahman Sarker, Managing Director and Shah Wares Ali Mamun, Mayor of Jamalpur municipality were present on the occasion.

RANGPUR: EXIM Bank Limited in association with district command of Bangladesh Muktijoddha Sangsad (BMS) distributed blankets among 300-distressed freedom fighters in the city today, official sources said.

Colonel (Admin) of Rangpur Cantonment Iftekhar Uddin Mahmud distributed the blankets at a ceremony on Muktijuddha Museum "Swashashoto Bangla' premises as the chief guest. —BSS