Golam Hafiz Ahmed, Additional Managing Director of NCC Bank Ltd speaks at the 49th Foundation Course for the officers of the Bank at its training institute recently.

The 49th Foundation Training Course for the officers of the NCC Bank was arranged at the bank’s training institute recently.

Golam Hafiz Ahmed, Additional Managing Director of the Bank attended the opening ceremony as chief guest, said a press release. Golam Hafiz Ahmed in his address emphasised on importance of month-long training and advised the participants to acquaint themselves with banking knowledge to prepare themselves for leading the Bank in future.

Mohabbat Khan, Deputy Managing Director attended the ceremony as special guest Principal of the Training Institute Jagadish Chandra Debnath co-ordinated the training.

News: The Daily Sun/Bangladesh/20-Sep-12

SA Chowdhury, CEO and Managing Director of Bangladesh Commerce Bank Limited inaugurates a branch of the Bank in Dinajpur recently.

The 34th branch of Bangladesh Commerce Bank Limited (BCBL) was opened at Dinajpur recently.

SA Chowdhury, CEO and Managing Director of the Bank inaugurated the branch as chief guest, said a press release.

Dr. Muhammad Asaduzzaman, Deputy Managing Director of the Bank was present on the occasion as special guest.

News: The Daily Sun/Bangladesh/20-Sep-12

Badiur Rahman, Chairman, Board of Directors of Al-Arafah Islami Bank, presides over the 229th meeting of the board at the Bank's board room in Dhaka Wednesday.

The 229th meeting of the Board of Directors of Al-Arafah Islami Bank Limited was held at the board room of the Bank Wednesday.

Badiur Rahman, Chairman, Board of Directors of the Bank presided over the meeting, said a press release.

The meeting reviewed overall business performance of the Bank.

Al-hajj Md Harun-Ar-Rashid Khan, Al-hajj Nazmul Ahsan Khaled, Al-hajj Abdul Malek Mollah, Al-hajj Hafej Md. Enayetullah, Al-hajj Abdul Moktadir, Mizanur Rahman Joddar, General Manager of Bangladesh Bank, Ekramul Hoque, Managing Director of Al-Arafah and Md. Mofazzal Hossain, Company Secretary and Deputy Managing Director were present in the meeting.

News: The Daily Sun/Bangladesh/20-Sep-12

Twenty-seven banks are not following the directives of the central bank to cut down the interest rate spread.

Bangladesh Bank has long been asking these banks to bring down their spread, the gap between the interest rates on credit and deposit, to the permissible limit of 5 percent.

The spread at the 27 banks is more than 5 percent. Six banks have more than 7 percent spread, according to data from the central bank.

In a bankers' meeting last week, all banks were advised to bring down their spread below 5 percent.

Chief executives of all banks attended the meeting, presided over by Governor Atiur Rahman.

A central bank official said, due to an unhealthy competition, some banks are giving higher interest on deposit, and as a result, the rate of interest on credit is going up.

In the meeting, the BB placed a report on the rate of interest on credit and deposit.

The report said the upper cap of the rate of interest on credit was withdrawn earlier. It resulted in an upward trend in the rate of interest on credit and deposit in the banking sector.

The BB official said the spread in the private and foreign banks is higher than that in other banks.

The central bank on several occasions has warned a number of banks that were offering higher interest on deposit, said the official.

A bank was fined under the Banking Company Act for offering higher interest than its announced rate, said the report.

But even after that the bank continued offering higher interest.

The BB report said, due to the higher rates of interest, credit flow into small and medium enterprises is being hindered.

Some weak banks are hampering the healthy competition in the banking sector, said the managing director of a private commercial bank.

These banks resort to various ill practices to attract depositors, the official said, requesting not to be named. "As a result, other banks have to increase their rate of interest as well."

Another official of a private bank said, if the rate of interest on deposit could be kept low, the rate of interest on credit will also remain low and in turn the spread will come down.

He said the central bank should strengthen monitoring so that banks do not go for any unhealthy competition.

News: The Daily Star/Bangladesh/20-Sep-12

Agents and users of mobile financial service provider bKash have been facing trouble in money transfer for the last one week.

They even do not know what is going wrong with the service.

bKash, a subsidiary of BRAC Bank, however, said a system upgrade has caused temporary disruptions in some areas.

“We're carrying out maintenance work that has created temporary sufferings,” Kamal Quadir, chief executive officer of bKash, said yesterday.

“I talked to distributors. The problem is not alarming,” said Quadir. bKash made 70,000 transactions in last two days, almost similar to the number of usual transactions, he said.

He expected a fair solution to the problem by last night and a full recovery in next 4-5 days.

Quadir, however, claimed 95 percent of the users are getting bKash services properly.

But the field-level situation is different.

“We have been facing serious trouble in making payments and transferring money for the last one week. We've heard bKash's server cannot take the load,” said Mohammad Shahin, who runs an outlet as a bKash agent in Gulshan.

Shahin said he used to make 400-500 transactions a day, but the number has come down to 30-35 in the past few days.

“A girl has been trying to send money to her parents for the last few days, but failed,” he said.

Firoz, another agent in the same area, also echoed the same.

“The service was good when it was launched, but now transactions are being settled after a day or two,” said Firoz.

Sabuj Hossain, who is a bKash agent at Karwan Bazar in the city, said his mobile money transfer service was totally inactive yesterday as he could not make any transaction.

Abdullah, another agent at Karwan Bazar, also admitted such a disruption.

But these agents could not tell the users what the problem was, as they are not directly linked with bKash. Agents are appointed through distributors who maintain the link with bKash.

“We are facing trouble for the past eight days. The problem becomes acute during the daytime, but remains better at night (12-7am) when customer turnout is scarce,” said Sadequr Rahman, owner of Channel Enterprise, a distributor of bKash in Gulshan.

Rahman said bKash officials told them that it was a technical problem and will be solved soon.

Bangladesh's first mobile financial service provider bKash started its formal business in July 2011 with an aim to provide financial services through mobile phones to both the unbanked and banked people across the country.

A phone call or a text message can make payments and money transfers. Customers are able to receive electronic money into their bKash accounts through salary, loan, domestic remittance, and other disbursements. They also can cash out the electronic money at any of the hundreds of agents assigned by bKash.

Now bKash has 15,000 agents and five lakh registered users across the country.

News: The Daily Star/Bangladesh/20-Sep-12