Major (Retd) Dr Md Rezaul Haque, former chairman of SIBL, inaugurates a branch at Badda in Dhaka Tuesday.

Social Islami Bank Limited (SIBL) opened its 82nd branch at Badda in Dhaka Tuesday.

Major (Retd) Dr Md Rezaul Haque, former chairman of the bank, inaugurated the branch as the chief guest, said a press release.

Muhammed Ali, Managing Director of SIBL, presided over the programme. Md Mohashin Miah, Deputy Managing Director, senior executives of the bank, local businessmen and customers of the bank attended the function.

News: The Daily Sun/Bangladesh/17th-Oct-12

 LIMA: Although women in Latin America and the Caribbean are better educated, they earn less than men, according to an Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) study released on Monday.

The report, entitled "New Century, Old Disparities," compared men and women in the same age groups and with similar educational levels, and concluded that men earn an average 17 per cent more than women.

While the gender wage gap has been shrinking in recent years, down from 25 per cent to 17 per cent between 1992 and 2007, "the process of closing this gap has been very slow," mostly due to "misguided stereotypes," said the study's author Hugo Nopo.

Early in childhood, these stereotypes discourage women from pursuing a wide range of better-paid jobs and encourage them to opt for jobs in lower-paid fields, such as teaching, healthcare and the service sector, the study said.

News: The Daily Sun/Bangladesh/17th-Oct-12

Bangladesh Bank (BB) authority Tuesday raised transaction ceiling for importing coal worth up to $7,500 by relaxing the rules of foreign-exchange transactions to facilitate coal imports.

“The latest ceiling for coal import has been set at $ 7,500 (Tk 6.15 lakh), a circular of the Foreign Exchange Policy Department (FEPD) of the central bank Tuesday said. Earlier, the ceiling was $6,000 (Tk 4.92 lakh).

All authorised dealers of banks were directed to implement the latest circular immediately.

News: The Daily Sun/Bangladesh/17th-Oct-12

The Asian Development Bank promised Tk 8.10 billion for drilling four wells and installing two processing plants at Titas Gas Field, said a senior official of Petrobangla.

He said as the drilling of four wells- 23, 24, 25 and 26 and installation of two processing plants will require Tk 10 billion, the government will bear the remaining Tk 1.90 billion.

Petrobangla has reserved all the onshore blocks for state-owned companies. But due to pressure from International oil companies, PetroBangla now invites them to drill wells in onshore blocks under contractual basis instead of awarding the work under model production sharing contract. ADB also tagged a bar to drill ADB-funded project by state-owned Bapex.

Petrobangla chairman Prof Hossain Mansur Monday said tender will be called soon for drilling the wells. “We will float tender soon to invite foreign companies for drilling the wells,” he said.

As per Petrobangla roadmap, Bangladesh Gas Field Company Limited (BGFCL) aims to drill Titas wells 23 and 24 between January and December next year to produce 60 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd) gas. BGFCL also plans to drill two more wells 25 and 26 by foreign companies between January and December 2015 to extract another 60 mmcfd gas.

Installation of two gas processing plants having production capacity 75 mmcfd each will cost Tk 1.5 billion.

Petrobangla Monday declared that it will invite bid immediately to explore gas after getting positive reserve estimation at the country’s potential gas field.

BAPEX in its latest findings estimated that Titas Gas field has more gas reserve than anticipated as the total recoverable gas at the field now stands at 5635 billion cubic feet (bcf), rising by 573.4bcf.

The field now has a reserve of 2195 bcf of recoverable gas (proven and probable or P2) after lifting 3440 bcf gas till August this year, Petrobangla chairman said.

“Titas field is one of the largest gas reserves in the subcontinent,” he claimed.

Prof Mansur said Petrobangla has initiated to dig 11 fresh wells to explore oil and gas in the potential gas field.

News: The Daily Sun/Bangladesh/17th-Oct-12

Citigroup Inc Chief Executive Vikram Pandit resigned abruptly on Tuesday, effective immediately, a shock change at the top of the bank just one day after a surprisingly strong quarterly earnings report.

A statement from Chairman Michael O'Neill said Michael Corbat, previously chief executive for Europe, Middle East and Africa, would succeed Pandit as CEO and as a board member.

Within minutes of the bank's announcement, Pandit's name was gone from Citigroup's website.

Chief Operating Officer John Havens, a long-time associate of Pandit, also resigned.

Citigroup's stock tumbled 2.5 percent in premarket trading following news of Pandit's departure, but later the shares were up 20 cents to $36.86 in early trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

Investors questioned why Pandit would leave now after keeping the bank afloat during the financial crisis and getting it back on a firmer footing.

"I would have expected he wanted to stay around and see some of the fruits of his labors there," said Peter Jankovskis, co-chief investment officer of Oakbrook Investments LLC in Lisle, Illinois.

Pandit's resignation comes after a series of high-profile defeats this year. In March the Federal Reserve rejected the bank's capital plans after a stress test; Pandit had led analysts and investors to believe the dividend-raising plans would be approved.

Last month, Pandit agreed to a low sale price for his bank's stake in the brokerage operated by Morgan Stanley. Citigroup had to take a $4.7 billion charge in the third quarter to write down the value of that stake.

Citigroup shares rose sharply on Monday after the bank reported third-quarter results that were much better than analysts expected.

The one-two punch of the results and then Pandit's exit point to what analysts say has been a years-long unsettled atmosphere around the bank.

"What Pandit and Havens did was increase the uncertainty around Citi," said Matt McCormick, banking analyst and portfolio manager at Bahl & Gaynor in Cincinnati, Ohio. "There's a perpetual cloud of uncertainty surrounding Citigroup. There's always turmoil ... that's had to affect the stock price."

EXPERIENCE QUESTIONS
Pandit's resignation revived questions that were asked from the day he took the job: whether he had the right experience to lead Citigroup in the first place.

Born in Nagpur, India, the 55-year-old Pandit obtained two electrical engineering degrees and a doctorate in finance from Columbia University. He joined Citigroup in July 2007 when the bank acquired his hedge fund and private equity firm, Old Lane Partners LP, for $800 million. Citigroup had to shut down Old Lane the next summer, an early black mark for the executive.

Critics later charged that Pandit was too timid, perhaps even too academic, to run a big consumer bank.

"He was not beloved by Wall Street. He was thrust into that position - he's a hedge fund guy," McCormick said.

His successor, Corbat, has held a number of senior roles at Citigroup, including running Citi Holdings, the unit established to house businesses and assets the company wants to shed.

A fixed income salesman by training, Corbat started out at Solomon Brothers in 1983. More recently, he has been credited with successfully restructuring some of Citigroup's consumer and credit card units.

News: The Daily Star/Bangladesh/17th-Oct-12