Ekramul Hoque, Managing Director of Al-Arafah Islami Bank, speaks at a workshop at the bank's training academy in Dhaka Saturday

Al-Arafah Islami Bank Limited organised day-long workshop on 'Web-based Online Reporting in International Trade' at Al-Arafah Islami Bank Training and Research Academy (AIBTRA) in Dhaka Saturday.

Ekramul Hoque, Managing Director of the bank inaugurated the workshop, said a press release.

Md. Abul Hossain, Senior Vice President, Miran Shah Chowdhury, Vice President and Principal of AIBTRA Md. Zahid Hasan were present.

News:Daily Sun/Bangladesh/24-Dec-2012

The country’s banking sector is passing through tough time, Bangladesh Bank (BB) Governor Atiur Rahman observed Sunday.

The BB governor said some of the problems were inherited; some others can be attributed to the failure of authorities, while the rest of the troubles may be considered as the trickle-down effect of the global financial crisis.

Atiur was speaking at the inaugural ceremony of the annual banking conference 2012, a regular event of the central bank, as chief guest at the auditorium of Bangladesh Institute of Bank Management (BIBM) at Mirpur in the city.

“Bangladesh’s banking sector has become matured and it achieved much. But it is also passed through a difficult time,” Dr Rahman told the conference, which was presided over by BIBM Director General Dr. Toufic Ahmad Choudhury.

The governor hopes that experts and the practicing bankers will address many critical issues and challenges prevailing in the country’s banking sector. “I welcome you all to this unique forum where academia and

practitioners can meet together to sort out crucial problems besetting this sector and come out with innovative solutions to those problems,” he said.

The National Board of RevenNBR)ue ( has started examining tax-related information about the sponsors of the much-talked-about new banks, a senior official said yesterday.

The revenue administration has asked its field offices to send information of the sponsors of four new banks -- Union Bank, Meghna Bank, Midland Bank and South Bangla Agricultural and Commerce Bank.

"We have started scanning tax files of the sponsors based on a request from Bangladesh Bank," the NBR official said, asking not to be unnamed.

“We are mainly looking into their income tax status, whether they have any outstanding dues.”

The central bank had earlier asked the NBR to know about the tax status of the sponsors of the new banks.

Many of sponsors of these banks are either lawmakers of ruling Awami League and Jatiya Party, with HM Ershad, a former military dictator and chief of AL's ally Jatiya Party, being the most notable.

Ershad is a director of Union Bank Ltd, while JP's International Affairs Secretary Golam Masih is among the 19 shareholders of the bank.

There are 22 sponsor shareholders of Meghna Bank, and the most prominent among them is HN Ashikur Rahman, a ruling party lawmaker from Rangpur-5 constituency and Nasrul Hamid, AL lawmaker from Dhaka-3.

South Bangla Agriculture and Commerce Bank has Dhaka University teacher and Ghatak Dalal Nirmul Committee leader Abdul Mannan Chowdhury as one of its 14 directors.

The number of Midland Bank's directors is 32, and its main sponsor, M Maniruzzaman Khandker, is the prime minister's income tax adviser and chairman of Karmasangsthan Bank.

In April, the central bank approved six local and three non-resident Bangladeshi banks in the face of political pressure.

Of them, seven managed to hand in their supporting documents in time to the BB, while two sought time extension, which the BB agreed to.

But out of the seven that handed in their paperwork in time, there is a shortfall in necessary documents in two.

News:The Deily star Bangladesh/24-Dec-2012

The Bangladesh Bank on Thursday announced its decision to relax its mandate for commercial banks to pay upfront 70 percent of the government's annual cash incentive to exporters.
Now, the exporters will have to wait for the start of each quarter, when the government disburses the budgetary allocation, to avail the financial support.

In a circular sent to banks with approval to carry out foreign currency transactions, the central bank said that the yearly budget allocation for the advance payment would be disbursed by the Ministry of Finance in four equal instalments in the first week of each quarter.

Previously, the exporters would withdraw in advance 70 percent of the incentive from the approved commercial banks, which would be later repaid by the central bank after the government disbursed funds.
Officials of the related department of the Bangladesh Bank said due to irregular disbursement of government funds, the central bank was not able to pay back the amount in time. In response, the commercial banks would slap as high interest rate as 18 percent over the funds it disbursed to the exporters.

In a separate circular, the Bangladesh Bank announced that the time to apply for the government's incentive would be extended. According to the statement, the exporters will now be able to appeal for the incentive after shipping products listed on the Letter of Credit (LC) in different consignments.

Earlier, the deadline to apply for the cash incentive was 180 days from the day of the price repatriation. As a result, many exporters could not apply for the aid after shipping products of the same LC in different batches.