Agrani Bank Limited opened its 887th branch at Banogram bazar in Gopalganj Monday.

Md Nurul Haque, General Manager of the bank, inaugurated the branch as chief guest.

Shekhor Chandra Biswas, Deputy General Manager of the bank, Robiul Alam Sikder, chairman of Muksudpur Upazila, Asraf Ali Ashu, SM Mohiuddin Ahmed Mukto, local AL leaders, Salahuddin Mia and Delwar, local UP chairman attended the function.

News: The Daily Sun/Bangladesh/19th-Dec-12

The central bank’s new provisioning policy guidelines may discourage banks and financial institutions from investing in the country’s most prospective and vibrant Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) sector.

If it happens, business and banking circles apprehend, it will severely affect the country’s rapidly growing SME sector on which more than 40-50 million people are directly or indirectly dependent.

The business and banking circles also said that it will, by and large, affect the country’s economic growth as the SMEs’ contribution to GDP may fall because of the new provisioning policy of the Bangladesh Bank.

Official sources said that the new circular, issued by the Banking Regulation & Policy Department (BRPD) of Bangladesh Bank on June 14 this year and then revised on September 23 brought some major changes to the existing bank loan classification and provisioning guidelines.

The changed guidelines halved the ‘overdue’ periods for loan classification from the existing ones, which will nearly ‘double’ the provisioning requirement.

Under the new regime, a term loan would be classified ‘bad’ and it will require 100 per cent loan loss provision when installments are overdue for 270 days, whereas under the existing policy it was 540 days.

Although requirement for general provision (GP) has been reduced from 1 per cent to 0.25 per cent, but the increase in specific provision will be much higher than the reduction in GP.

The bankers have been asked to implement the new policy within the current fiscal year.

Until issuance of the new circular, the micro and agriculture sector had been enjoying a special concession in receiving bank credit and in terms of loan classification and provisioning.

From a general point of view, many business and banking professionals have welcomed the new policy for large and medium corporates since it will align the country’s credit policies to international standards and streamline the banks’ credits.

News: The Daily Sun/Bangladesh/19th-Dec-12

Alhaj Mohammad Hasan, Chairman of the EC of Shahjalal Islami Bank, presides over a meeting at the bank's head office in Dhaka recently.

The 511th meeting of the Executive Commi-ttee (EC) of Shahjalal Islami Bank Limited (SIBL) was held at the bank's head office in Dhaka recently.

Alhaj Mohammad Hasan, Chairman of the EC of the bank, presided over the meeting, said a press release. Khandoker Sakib Ahmed, Vice-Chairman, Alhaj Akkas Uddin Mollah, Alhaj Md Solaiman, Alhaj Tofazzal Hossain, Directors, Md Abdur Rahman Sarker, MD, Md Mukhter Hossain, AMD, Md Abdul Jabber Chowd-hury and Md Shafiul Azam, DMDs of the bank, attended the meeting.

News: The Daily Sun/Bangladesh/19th-Dec-12

Bangladesh Bank (BB) has issued guideline for wire transfer or electronic money transfer in line with its continuous effort to check money laundering and encourage fund transfer through official channels.

The guideline, issued last week, stipulated that any transaction of money using swift, mobile phone, credit and debit cards and other electronic media would be considered as wire transfer.

Under the guideline, all banks and other money transferring organisations and agencies should keep detail and meaningful information about the person or organisation transferring at least US$1000 to any other country electronically.

For electronic transfer of Taka 25,000 domestically, the banks and other organisations should keep detail and accurate information about the transferee, and for the amount below Taka 25,000, the meaningful information about the beneficiaries should be kept with the banks.

The organisations, those are offering mobile banking, should use the KYC (know your client) format to keep information about the transferee.

The credit and debit cards issuers will also keep similar information about their clients excepting the payment for buying goods and services.

The guideline is not mandatory for transferring money by government, semi- government and autonomous organisations, the BB said.

News: The Daily Sun/Bangladesh/19th-Dec-12

Bangladesh Bank Governor Dr. Atiur Rahman seen at a donation giving function of First Security Islamic Bank Ltd (FSIBL) at a hotel in Dhaka Tuesday.

The banks spent a total of Tk 2.19 billion in 2011 under their corporate social responsibility works, growing 5 times over the past four years, said Bangladesh Bank Governor Dr Atiur Rahman.

During the current year, the banks have so far spent a praiseworthy amount of over Tk 1 billion on the same purpose, the governor said.

He was addressing a donation giving ceremony of First Security Islamic Bank Ltd (FSIBL) to various philanthropic and social service activities Tuesday at a city hotel.

Managing Director of FSIBL, AMM Zakaria presided over the function also attended by Deputy Governor of Bangladesh Bank SK Sur Chowdhury, Mostofa Jalal Mohiuddin MP, Prof. Abdullah Abu Sayeed, Sagufta Yeasmin MP, Shamsul Haque MP and Mirza Azam MP.

Bangladesh Bank pays special attention to the banks’ corporate social responsibility programmes as such initiatives can help the disadvantaged group come out of poverty, said the central bank governor Dr Atiur Rahman.

He informed that all the banks conduct CSR activities and of them, 20 banks have established separate trust or foundation as CSR has become an integral part of business enterprises globally.

Governor also said reaching banking service and providing credit facility to the hard core poor have already cast a very good impact on the national economy, which even has been reflected in the report of the world famous credit rating organisation Moody’s.

In last four years, the central bank has focused on neglected but productive sectors like agriculture and SMEs, he said.

FSIBL Managing Director said: “The banks’ goal has not limited to only profit-making. They are now conducting huge CSR programmes.”

News: The Daily Sun/Bangladesh/19th-Dec-12