ANM Abul Kashem, General Manager of BB, and Mubasher Munaf Moin, Chief Operating Officer of Core Knowledge Limited, are seen signing an agreement in Dhaka Sunday.

Bangladesh Bank has signed an agreement with Core Knowledge Limited, a sister concern of Rahimafrooz BD Limited on providing Online Learning Tools (OLT) for its officials.

ANM Abul Kashem, General Manager of BB and Mubasher Munaf Moin, Chief Operating Officer of Core Knowledge Limited signed the agreement on behalf of their respective organisations in Dhaka Sunday, said a press release.

Dr. Hassan Zaman, Senior Economic Advisor, Md. Ahsan Ullah, ED and Project Director of CBSP, and other high officials of Bangladesh Bank were present.

Through this new initiative, 500 officials of BB will get access to a wide range of world renowned e-Learning tools and resources for soft skills development in personal development, performance management, change management, team building, public speaking, business communications, leadership and management essentials, accounting and IT fundamentals. Deputy Governor Nazneen Sultana, in her speech emphasised on Human Resource Development where soft skills play a vital role to build up strong and competent professionals in an organisation and affirmed e-Learning for BBofficials as a milestone event in BB getting digitally ahead.

News: The Daily Sun/Bangladesh/22th-Oct-12

The Bangladesh Bank (BB) will Supply 180 machines to different cattle markets in the capital to detect counterfeit notes on the occasion of the Erid-Ul-Azha, said an official release of the central bank.

To this goal, the BB has provided 80 machines to the Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) and another 25 to the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB).

Besides, the other branches of the Bangladesh Bank have provided another 75 fake note detecting machines to the law enforcing agencies in their respective areas.

Earlier, the BB has provided adequate number of fake note detecting machines to the law enforcing agencies, said an official of the BB Sunday.

Moreover, the other scheduled banks also will install booths at the cattle markets across the country where the experienced cashiers of these banks will provide service through checking the counterfeit notes with the help of these machines and it will continue till the last day of the cattle trading.

News: The Daily Sun/Bangladesh/22th-Oct-12

Bangladesh Bank (BB) authority Sunday asked banks to ensure uninterrupted supply of cash at ATM (Automated Trailer Machine) booths for clients during the Durga Puja and Eid-ul-Azha festivals.

Payment Systems Department (PSD) of the central bank issued a circular to this effect in the wake of complaints that banks are not caring enough to provide cash service through ATM booths during festival holidays. As a result, clients suffer due to shortage of cash which disappoints them.

“BB directive is aimed to make cash available at ATM booths near shopping malls and cattle markets to meet growing demand for funds,” said an official of the central bank, wishing not to be named.

The official said the number of ATM card users increased significantly in the country as banks have been luring clients by offering a lot of benefits.

“Often there are complaints during the festival holidays that either ATM booths are not functioning properly or there is no cash,” he said.

News: The Daily Sun/Bangladesh/22th-Oct-12

 In order to prevent unauthorised correspondence, Bangladesh Bank has directed chief executive officers (CEOs) of all financial institutions (FIs) to put respective signatures on financial statements or regulatory documents that need to be sent to the central bank authority.

A circular issued by the BB authority Sunday said the signatories of FIs authorised by respective CEOs is also acceptable on their periodic statements.

In both the cases, the FIs will need to send sample of signatures of the CEOs or authorised officials to the central bank’s Financial Institution and Market Department for verification.

A BB official said this would prevent unauthorised access to the core matters of financial sector regulations.

The official said any unauthorised access to the regulatory affairs may lead to devastation in respect to financial security.

News: The Daily Sun/Bangladesh/22th-Oct-12

The World Bank (WB) Sunday projected 6 per cent growth for Bangladesh in the current 2012-13 fiscal year (FY13) with the observation that the country would continue a healthy growth driven by improving macro-economic management.

“The real GDP growth in FY13 is projected at around 6 per cent and the healthy growth trend would continue in the current fiscal despite various constraints as there is sign of improvement in macro-economic management,” WB senior economist Zahid Hussain told reporters while announcing the country’s Economic Outlook at its local office.

Hussain said Bangladesh’s projected growth in FY13 is among the top 35 out of 150 countries in IMF’s World Economic Outlook.

He said the growth is expected to be better for Bangladesh compared to the neighboring countries when Pakistan’s growth projection for current fiscal is 3.3 per cent, Nepal 3.6 per cent, Malaysia 4.7 per cent, Vietnam 5.9 per cent, India 6 per cent, Sri Lanka 6.7 per cent and China 8.2 per cent.

The World Bank in its outlook said that tighter monetary policy and favourable international price trends decelerated inflation when fiscal policy returned on track, sound exchange rate management eased pressure on the balance of payments, but the growth performance remained below target due to weak global economy and infrastructure constraints.

The lending agency also identified four key internal and external risks that the country would have to face in future.

These are intensification of the euro area crisis, escalation of global food and oil prices as balance of payments vulnerability to an international oil price shock has increased, heightened risk in the banking sector, increased political uncertainty in the run up to elections.

Hussain said that achieving desired 7.2 per cent growth in FY 13 would be a challenging proposition because of two factors - weak external demand and domestic investment constraints continue to drag growth below potential.

Answering a question, The World Bank’s senior economist observed that the country could achieve 6.5 per cent or even more growth rate in the current fiscal if there is close surveillance of macroeconomic development, stronger monitoring and supervision of banks, improved infrastructure management and building policy space by pressing ahead on tax reforms, harnessing concessional external; resources and improving expenditure management.

Addressing the media briefing, WB country director Ellen Goldstein said that they are monitoring the financial sector very closely given the recent concern in the banking supervision side.

“Bangladesh continue to suffer from some other major structural problems including persistent electricity and gas shortages and less than optimal investment climate and this continue to hold Bangladesh’s growth below to what the country is capable of achieving,” she said.

News: The Daily Sun/Bangladesh/22th-Oct-12