Abu Haniff Khan, Additional Managing Director of Premier Bank inaugurate a training course on "Green Banking and Environmental Concerns in Credit Risk Management" at its Head Office, Dhaka.

A training course on "Green Banking and Environmental Concerns in Credit Risk Management" was organised by Premier Bank in its Head Office, Dhaka.

The course was inaugurated by Additional Managing Director, Abu Haniff Khan. Officials from Credit Division of the head office and different branches participated in this session.

News: The Daily Sun/Bangladesh/13-Sep-12

Md. Jahangir Alam, Managing Director, MI Cement Limited, inaugurates an ATM booth of MTB at KFC Building, Lalkhan Bazar, Chittagong recently. Anis A. Khan, MTB Managing Director and CEO, Md. Ahsan-uz Zaman, Additional Managing Director, Mohammad Ali Chowdhury, Head of MTB Chittagong Division Branches, local elite and senior officials of MTB are seen.

Two new ATM booths of Mutual Trust Bank Limited (MTB) were opened at Urban Centre, Anderkilla and KFC Building, Lalkhan Bazar in Chittagong recently.

Jasim Uddin Chowdhury, Managing Director, Signet Press Limited and Managing Editor, Dainik Purbokone and Md. Jahangir Alam, Managing Director, MI Cement Limited inaugurated the ATM booths, said a press release.

News: The Daily Sun/Bangladesh/13-Sep-12

The country's foreign currency reserves yesterday crossed $11 billion thanks to slowing imports and steady remittance growth, officials said.

The foreign currency reserves went down below $11 billion last week when the country paid $70 million to Asian Clearing Union as debt servicing.

A central bank official said the reserves stood at $11.1 billion now and the banking regulator hopes to cross $12 billion in the next two to three months.

The steady flow of remittance and declining imports contributed to the rise in reserves.

Non-resident Bang-ladeshis send $1.167 billion in remittance in August, up by 6 percent over the same month last year.

This is the ninth consecutive month that Bangladesh has received over one billion dollar in remittance.

The remittance in the first two months of 2012-13 rose by 11.9 percent over the same period a year ago.

News: The Daily Star/Bangladesh/13-Sep-12

Private bankers want Bangladesh Bank to intervene in clearing the payments made to controversial Hall-Mark Group against the bills that were given acceptance by the state-owned Sonali Bank.

Association of Bankers Bangladesh (ABB) at a meeting yesterday decided to take the issue to the regulator after Sonali declined to settle those payments during the last 4-5 months.

“If Sonali Bank doesn't pay other banks, it will affect the entire system. Other banks' trust on Sonali will go down,” said a top office bearer of the ABB, a forum of chief executive officers of banks.

Hall-Mark Group swindled more than Tk 2,600 crore by selling inland letter of credit accepted by Sonali Bank's Ruposhi Bangla Hotel branch to other banks, mostly the private ones. The bankers said they bought those bills considering Sonali's acceptance.

The other issues the ABB will place before the governor at today's meeting of the bankers include the implementation of the new loan rules relating to rescheduling, provisioning and classification.

The bankers need more time to implement the new rules as those were imposed in the middle of the year and the banks set their business strategies at the beginning of the year.

“We'll request the governor to extend time for implementing the new rules on loan rescheduling and provisioning,” said a chief executive of a private bank.

According to the new rules that became effective from July 1, an ongoing loan operation will be classified in the event of non-repayment of any instalment within three months instead of the six-month timeframe used before.

The base for provisioning has been set at a minimum level of 20 percent of the outstanding balance of the credits, while strictly limiting the rescheduling facility of any default loan up to three times.

“We'll request the central bank to reduce the base for provisioning at 15 percent instead of 20 percent,” said the ABB office bearer. He said banks take mortgage for all loans, so there is no reason why the provisioning would be so high.

According to the new rules, the non-repayment period against a term-loan for more than two months will be treated as a "specially mentioned account" and the non-repayment period between three and six months will be classified as substandard. If the non-repayment period is more than six months, it will be treated as default loan.

News: The Daily Star/Bangladesh/13-Sep-12

Helal Ahmed Chowdhury, Managing Director of Pubali Bank, speaks at a function on joining 220 newly-recruited armed guards at the banks head office in Dhaka recently.

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