Bangladesh Bank aims to introduce a mechanism for faster settlement of funds transferred from one bank to another by 2014, particularly to help businesses get liquidity without any delay, said a senior official yesterday.

The arrangement, termed as Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS), is much faster than the present Electronic Fund Transfer Network (EFTN).

"High-value transfer will be done in real-time due to the introduction of the RTGS. It will accelerate the pace of business as liquidity flow will rise," said Dasgupta Asim Kumar, a BB executive director.

"We want to implement it by 2014," he told reporters at the 12th Saarc Payments Council meeting at Sonargaon Hotel in the capital.

Delegates from all Saarc states, except for Afghanistan, attended the meeting to devise strategies to ensure a smoother, safer and faster payment gateway for all, said Dasgupta.

"Another objective is to share experiences of each other," he said.

Central banks of India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka have already established the RTGS system, while the Maldives, Nepal and Bhutan have also made strides in implementing it, said the BB official.

"We are ahead of others in other aspects though," said Dasgupta, adding that the central bank has made progress in establishing the EFTN and an automated clearing house.

He also said the BB would a take service charge on automated cheque clearance and electronic fund transfer from the beginning of next year.

Inaugurating the meeting, Atiur Rahman, the BB governor, said automated clearance and EFTN have greatly facilitated promotion of financial inclusion by way of rapid expansion of mobile phone and smart card-based remote delivery of financial services.

“It has also facilitated cost-effective and speedy transactions,” he said.

The governor said the BB is now working towards a national payments switch to provide a common platform for inter-bank electronic payments originating from different delivery channels including ATMs (automated teller machine), POS (point of sales) terminals, internet, and mobile applications.

"The Saarc Payments Council may consider introducing training visits to payments system installations of other member countries. This may help speed up the eventual cross-border interlinking of electronic fund transfer channels of all member countries."

News: The Daily Star/Bangladesh/19-Nov-12

'Know Your Client' (KYC) criteria is set to be made mandatory soon for all share market investors as it is done in the case of bank clients to restrict easy entry of tainted money into the capital market, highly placed sources in the Ministry of Finance(MoF) and Bangladesh Bank(BB) said Saturday.

A clear instruction to this effect will be issued soon by the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) of the BB as the draft of the guideline has recently been okayed by Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), they said.

The government has undertaken the initiative to introduce the 'KYC' to meet the requirements of global anti-money laundering watchdogs -- Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and Asia Pacific Group (APG) on money laundering, a senior finance official said.

Stock brokers, stock dealers and other capital market intermediaries, under the proposed guidelines, will have to report to the FIU of BB regularly in the event of suspicious transactions in the share market, a BB official said.

"We have to trace suspicious transactions in the share market by introducing reporting system for capital market intermediaries to brighten our image globally," Abu Hena Mohd. Razee Hassan, Deputy Governor, Bangladesh Bank, told the FE on Saturday.

"The country cannot afford to downgrade its status internationally due to loopholes in the enforcement of provisions in the current Anti-money Laundering act," he added.

The flow of investment from both local and foreign sources into the capital market might increase once the guideline is issued, he expressed the hope.

It is now largely believed that local share market is a safe haven for money earned through corruption, bribery and tax evasion. No reporting system or 'KYC' is now mandatory either for individual or institutional investors or brokerage firms.

Besides, the government is actively considering amending the current Anti-terrorism Act to declare a terrorist of any country of the world as a terrorist of Bangladesh and make the local laws on anti-terrorism equally applicable to foreign terrorists.

The FATF and the APG, especially the US, have long been pressing the government of Bangladesh for keeping a provision to this effect in the Anti-terrorism Act, 2012.

News: The Daily Financial Express/Bangladesh/18-Nov-12

Kanak Kumar Purkayastha, Deputy Managing Director of BASIC Bank Limited, seen with the participants of the 16th foundation training course at the bank’s training cell in Dhaka Saturday.

News: The Daily Sun/Bangladesh/18-Nov-12

BRAC Bank launched debit card for farmers in Dinajpur enabling them to buy agricultural materials, avail loan and withdraw cash whenever necessary in easier way.

The bank in association with Bestec Investment, partner of the bank for the project, organised a programme in Birganj Degree College at Birganj in Dinajpur Friday to hand over Krishak Card to 200 local farmers.

Ahmed Shamim Al Raji, Deputy Commissioner, Dinajpur, Md. Rafiqul Islam, President, Dinajpur Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Mohammad Mamdudur Rashid, Deputy Managing Director, BRAC Bank, Architect Md. Tariqul Islam, Chairman, Bestec Investment Ltd, attended the programme.

Babu Chitta Ghosh, President, Dinajpur Press Club, Md. Quamruzzaman, Managing Director, Bestec Agro Ltd, officials from local administration offices, local dignitaries and senior officials of BRAC Bank, were also present.

News: The Daily Sun/Bangladesh/18-Nov-12

Financial weekly Industry awarded 12 commercial banks, eight of which have strong ratings while four were recognised for their high contribution to remittance channelling.

The weekly also awarded three best remittance recipient bankers at a function in the city on Saturday.

Eight highly-rated banks include Prime Bank Ltd, Islami Bank Bangladesh Ltd, Pubali Bank Ltd, Arab-Bangladesh

Bank Ltd, Al-Arafah Islami Bank Ltd, Dutch-Bangla Bank Ltd, National Bank Ltd and State Bank of India.

The best four remittance channelling banks are Sonali Bank Ltd, Janata Bank Ltd, Agrani Bank Ltd and Southeast Bank Ltd.

Besides, the awarded bankers were named as Md Abdul Mannan, managing director of Islami Bank Bangladesh Ltd, Helal Ahmed Chowdhury, managing director of Pubali Bank Ltd and Shamsul Huda Khan, deputy managing director of National Bank Ltd.

Former Finance Adviser to a caretaker government Dr AB Mirza Azizul Islam attended the function as chief guest.

With Industry editor Enayet Karim in the chair, the function was also attended by Bangladesh Bank’s former deputy governor Ataul Haque, Association of Bankers Bangladesh president Nurul Amin and Global Economists Forum president Shah Md. Nurul Alam.

“Banks must shun their profiteering tendency if they want to take their services to the doorsteps of the people,” said Dr. Mirza Azizul Islam.

He observed that there is a huge gap between deposit and lending interest rates.

“If not run in appropriate manner, the country’s banking sector would face a setback,” warned the veteran economist.

He added the banking sector’s failure did lead the US and the EU economies to plunge into recessions in recent time.

The banks would need to strengthen internal vigilance, reporting requirement, internal audit and maintaining proper risk management to ensure their smooth running, Dr Mirza Aziz suggested.

ABB president emphasised the growth of private sector to uplift the economy. “The country’s private sector holds 70 percent of total asset and liability in the banking sector, which amounts to Tk 350 billion.”

“Challenges are ahead for the banking sector as it will have to implement the BASEL-III,” Nurul Amin added.

Islami Bank MD Md. Abdul Mannan informed that the bank has 6.7 million depositors and provided financing to over 700,000 entrepreneurs across the country.

He said Islami Bank has also distributed micro credit to 650,000 families in 17,000 villages across the country. Besides, the bank’s SME financing now amounts to Tk 170 billion.

Industry editor Enayet Karim alleged that the banks usually do profit engineering rather than removing their basic weaknesses that ultimately impede the banking sector’s expected success.

News: The Daily Sun/Bangladesh/18-Nov-12