Bangladesh Bank (BB) Tuesday released a schedule of charges that the central bank and the requesting banks could realise for clearance of cheques of different values.

For clearance of high-value cheques, the BB would charge Tk 25 and VAT (Value Added Tax) from requesting banks while the banks could charge Tk 50 and VAT from their clients.

For regular value cheques, the rate per cheque is Tk 5 and VAT while banks could charge maximum Tk 7 and VAT from clients.

The rate of charge per transactions under the Bangladesh Electronic Fund Transfer Network in case of the central bank is Tk 5 and VAT while banks could charge Tk 7 maximum from clients.

News: The Daily Sun/Bangladesh/14-Nov-12

The World Bank is now unwilling to finance $160 million in the country’s fisheries sector under Integrated Fisheries Livinghood Project, Bangladesh (IFLHPB), though it earlier showed interest to invest in the project.

The WB informed Fisheries and Livestock Minister Abdul Latif Biswas about its unwillingness during his visit to WB office in Washington last September.

It, however, showed interest to provide technical assistance to local fisheries sector.

A report sent to the cabinet division on fisheries minister’s visit to USA during 20-30 September reads that Scandinavians country Norway was interested to funding that project, fisheries ministry sources said.

The World Bank’s resident representative in Bangladesh Ellen Goldstein in a recent meeting with the fisheries minister at his office also informed that the WB will not finance the project, said a senior official of fisheries ministry.

The official also said that the name of project will be altered as the World Bank has withdrawn itself from funding the project.

The project has been undertaken to educate local fishermen about implementing the rules of international standard in fishing. Under the project, the government will also carry out a survey on fresh water fisheries resources framework.

The project was taken aiming to diversify country’s fisheries sector and boost exports of local fish and shrimp to earn more foreign currency, as per the project proposal.

According to the project, the government will also develop country’s costal aquaculture and increase Mari culture variety of fishes.

The country’s fish sector earned $ 598.42 million during last fiscal marking a negative growth of over 4.0 per cent compared to that of the previous year. But it fell short of target by over 17 per cent.

Shrimp farming is a key employment sector in the country’s south-western coastal region. Some 1.2 million people are directly involved with the industry while 130 shrimp processing plants and tens of thousands of farms have also created indirect employment of 5 million people.

News: The Daily Sun/Bangladesh/14-Nov-12

The British High Commission in Dhaka considers financial statements from the country’s 33 commercial banks to be non-compliant for processing a UK visa.

After extensive examination and discussion with the Bangladesh Bank Governor several times during last one year, British High Commission earlier selected 14 private and multinational banks as qualified to accept financial statements for issuing visas to Bangladeshi citizens, a senior official of the Banking And Financial Institution Division said.

A tug of war has been prevailing between the British High Commission and foreign ministry centering the issue during the last six months as the government sees it as a violation of the Vienna Convention 1961.

The British authorities, in the meantime, have suspended the vital move following request from Bangladesh’s foreign ministry.

The 14 banks those were selected by British High Commission are— AB Bank, National Credit and Commerce Bank, Eastern Bank Limited, Southeast Bank Limited, One Bank, Mutual Trust Bank, Brac Bank Limited, First Security Bank, Shahjalal Islami Bank, State Bank of India, Standard Chartered Bank, Citibank N.A., Bank of Ceylon and HSBC.

With some 47 commercial operating in the country currently, the central bank gave go-ahead for six new banks in April this year.

The UK Border Agency earlier said the UK government will accept financial statements from the selected banks from November 1.

Commenting on the issue, Bangladesh Bank Governor Dr Aitur Rahman told reporters that he knew nothing about the selection of banks for UK visa process.

Sources in the Banking Division of the finance ministry said a brief summary of the UK government’s move has already been sent to the foreign ministry.

The division has recommended wide-range discussions with the stakeholders to resolve the issue, sources said. A senior official of the Banking Division said they sought opinion from the central bank through a letter sent to BB Governor Dr Atiur Rahman.

After receiving feedbacks from Bangladesh Bank, the Banking Division will decide further course of action to address the discrimination by selecting a handful of banks from accepting financial statement by the UK authorities in the name of financial compliance in processing UK visa, the official added.

News: The Daily Sun/Bangladesh/14-Nov-12

Bangladesh Bank will impose a service charge on automated cheque clearance and electronic fund transfer from the beginning of next year, said a circular yesterday.

A Bank can charge its customers a maximum of Tk 50 plus value-added tax for high-value cheques (Tk 5 lakh and above) and Tk 7 plus VAT for regular-value cheques (under Tk 5 lakh).

And for electronic fund transfer, a bank will be allowed to charge a maximum of Tk 7 plus VAT.

BB, on the other hand, will take Tk 25, Tk 5 and Tk 5 from the charges for high-value cheque, regular cheque and electronic fund transfer respectively.

In the circular, the central bank said it has been allowing the banks to use its infrastructure free of charge to provide the services to their customers for around two years now.

“Though the systems were installed with the assistance of the British government, the BB has been bearing the operating costs,” said the circular.

“It [BB] has decided to impose the charges for maintenance and covering the operating costs,” it said.

A BB official said the central bank requires nearly Tk 25 crore per year to run the system smoothly.

Of the cost, Tk 11 crore is spent for maintenance and the rest as depreciation for machines.

Bangladesh Automated Cheque Clearing House consists of two components -- Bangladesh Automated Cheque Processing System (BACPS) that replaced the earlier paper-based manual cheque clearing system and Bangladesh Electronic Funds Transfer Network (BEFTN), an inter-bank electronic funds transfer system -- to help the banking sector transact smoothly.

With the initiative, duration of cheque clearance reduced and its volume increased significantly, said BB officials.

Under the automated system, Tk 5,000 crore on average is cleared and transferred through the BACPS and BEFTN per day.

News: The Daily Star/Bangladesh/14-Nov-12

Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) will interrogate 14 senior officials of Janata Bank Limited (JBL) from November 18 next as part of its investigation into the non-funded portion of the Hall-Mark loan scam, officials said.

The anti-graft watchdog Monday sent notices to the JBL officials concerned asking them to be physically present and correctly response to the queries of its inquiry team on November 18 and November 19 (Sunday and Monday next).

The notices signed by chief of the six-member inquiry team and ACC Deputy Director Joynal Abedin Shibly were sent to the working places of the bankers.

Those who will be quizzed are JBL's local office branch officials - General Manager (GM) Aminul Islam, Deputy General Manager (DGM) Joynal Abedin, Assistant General Manger (AGM) Ruhul Amin Khan, Manager (Export) Alauddin Akhand and Export in-Charge Abdul Gafur; three officials of JBL's Elephant Road branch-Senior Executive Officer (SEO) AK Azad, SEO Shoaibul Kabir and AGM Mostaque Ahmed Khan; the bank's Bhaban Corporate branch officials-AGM Abdus Salam Azad, DGM SM Abu Hena Mostafa; and the rest-DGM (Ramna corporate branch) Mizanur Rahman, AGM (Ramna Corporate Branch) Kazi Raisuddin Ahmed, DGM (Foreign Exchange Branch) Sheikh Haider Hossain and AGM of the same branch Mizanur Rahman.

According to the notices, the first seven of the serial will be quizzed on Sunday and the remaining on the following day.

The commission took the decision to grill them before taking legal action in connection with the non-funded portion (over Tk 11 billion) of the total loan that had been swindled by the controversial group on forged documents.

"We'll ask them some important questions during the preliminary inquiry and lodge cases about the financial irregularities them on the basis of their response," chief of the ACC inquiry team Joynal Abedin Shibly told the FE.

Referring to interrogation of the Hall-Mark top officials, he said the controversial business group fraudulently took the non-funded amount from 26 commercial banks in the form of back to back LCs (letters of credit) and inland bill purchase (IBP).

Talking to reporters, ACC Commissioner M Shahabuddin said they have summoned 14 officials from five city branches of the state-owned JBL.

"Officials of 25 other commercial banks, mostly private ones, will also be interrogated in phases in connection with the largest financial irregularities in the country's banking history," he said.

News: The Daily Financial Express/Bangladesh/13-Nov-12