Prof. Abu Nasser Muhammad Abduz Zaher, Chairman of Islami Bank Bangladesh Limited, inaugurates a new branch at Upakul Super Market at Subarnachar in Noakhali.

Islami Bank Bangladesh Limited opened its 273rd branch at Upakul Super Market at Subarnachar in Noakhali.

Prof. Abu Nasser Muhammad Abduz Zaher, Chairman of the Bank inaugurated the branch as chief guest.

The Daily Sun/Bangladesh/ 26th June 2012

Bank customers have logged some 2,151 complaints to central bank in last one year till March, which are related to clients’ harassments by their banks in rendering banking services, according to a recent Bangladesh Bank (BB) study.

Half of the complaints are related to general banking services while the rest are involved with the non-payment of bills by banks against accepted L/Cs (Letters of Credits).

The Customers’ Interests Protection Center (CIPC) of BB recorded these complaints, received either by telephone, mobile, e-mail, postal mail, fax and SMS or in written form, in a period from March 28, 2011 to March 31, 2012.

A high official of BB said the actual number of complaints would be much higher than those had been recorded as hundreds of thousands of bank clients were not aware of the complaint cell (CIPC) of the central bank.

“Only the smart clients who are aware of the CIPC, lodge complaints if they feel deprived of due bank services,” said the official, requesting anonymity.

He also informed that 90 percent of the cases were dissolved through rapid intervention of the central bank on receiving the complaints.

“The number of complaints not disposed yet stands at 210 now of the total allegations,” he said.

In a country like Bangladesh where banking system is beset with innumerable problems, it is not the only importance to solve problems, rather it’s also very crucial to disseminate the message to all that there is a place to get solution to such banking related problems, said the official.

The CIPC analysis shows that complaints about general banking was 52.94 percent, about loans and advances 32.87 percent, remittance 2.31 percent, local bill 1.61 percent, foreign bill 0.81 percent , card (Credit and Debit) service 1.15 percent and others 8.30 percent.

Analysis of 981 complaints received in written forms shows that most of the complaints are about non-payment of accepted L/C bills. Of these, 26.23 percent were local bills and 24.17 percent foreign bills.

The Daily Sun/Bangladesh/ 26th June 2012

India took a handful of measures on Monday to support the embattled rupee but disappointed investors who had been hoping for bolder action to prop up a currency that hit a record low on Friday.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) increased the limit on foreign investment in government bonds by $5 billion to $20 billion along with a few other relatively minor steps, causing the rupee to trim earlier gains on disappointment the measures were not more aggressive.

"Well, not the 'shock and awe' the market was looking for but we shall see what else gets announced. Not surprised to see USD/INR higher," said Jonathan Cavenagh, senior forex strategist at Westpac in Singapore.

"Until they address longer-term structural issues around capital flows and competition in the domestic retail sector which can help bring down inflation pressures, I think markets will be left disappointed," he said.

The rupee rallied earlier on Monday on hopes for measures to halt a slump in the currency. Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, due to step down so he can run for the largely ceremonial post of president, had said on Saturday that announcements would be forthcoming on Monday.

The rupee has fallen as India's economic growth declined to a nine-year low of 5.3 percent in the March quarter, piling pressure on the government and the central bank to revive the country's fortunes.

At 2:39 p.m. in Mumbai (0909 GMT), the rupee was at 56.96/97 to the dollar, weakening from 56.55 levels before the announcement and its intraday high of 56.37.

On Friday the rupee closed at 57.12/13, down about 7.4 percent since the start of the year, making it the worst performing currency in Asia.

The Sensex erased gains after the measures were announced, and were down 0.65 percent on the day.

Analysts said India needed to improve its economic fundamentals, including addressing its current account deficit, to bolster the rupee.

"The market was expecting a slew of measures. The measures announced now won't have any direct material bearing on the rupee. Unless the RBI comes in with more measures, the rupee will fall back to the 57-58 to a dollar levels," said M Natarajan, head of treasury at Bank of Nova Scotia in Mumbai.

Other central bank measures on Monday included a reduction in lock-in restrictions on some government bonds for foreign investors, and the opening of investment in debt securities to more types of foreign buyers.

The central bank also said it modified the lock-in periods for foreign investment in infrastructure debt but did not immediately provide details.

The rupee's decline comes as emerging market currencies have weakened against the dollar as investors, worried about the global economic slowdown and the euro zone crisis, flee to the perceived safety of dollars.

Morgan Stanley estimates India's current account deficit will widen to $72 billion by the end of June, from $49 billion a year earlier. That would put the current account deficit at between 4 percent and 4.5 percent of India's GDP.

The Daily Star/Bangladesh/ 26th June 2012

The government has prepared a roadmap to prevent money laundering and terrorism financing for a period up to 2013 with a provision of imposing restriction on cash transactions for some selected sectors.

The finance ministry has already prepared a strategy paper -- National Strategy for Preventing Money Laundering and Combating Financing of Terrorism 2011-2013.

Finance ministry officials said the paper was supposed to be placed in parliament during the budget session but finally it did not happen.

Finance Minister AMA Muhith in the strategy paper said the strategic planning initiative has used APG (Asia Pacific Group on Money Laundering) Mutual Evaluation Report and Bangladesh's self-assessment exercises in identifying the threats to anti-money laundering and combating financing terrorism efforts.

The strategy paper also incorporated stakeholders' recommendations.

Muhith said, after setting the medium term vision for fighting money laundering and terrorism financing, the document identifies 12 strategic objectives to be attained.

The strategy paper said Bangladesh is mainly a cash-based economy and most of the banks are concentrated in large towns, leaving the majority of population in remote areas deprived of banking services.

The paper also said there are limited banking facilities, a small banking network and less trustworthiness upon the formal financial system among the low-income people in Bangladesh.

As a result, most of the business transactions are made in cash instead of paper or electronic media such as cheque or e-money, it said.

The roadmap includes a provision of imposing restriction on cash transactions for selected sectors/ types/purposes/thresholds by December this year.

The finance and home ministries, Bangladesh Bank, Securities and Exchange Commission, Insurance Development & Regulatory Authority Bangladesh, and NGO Affairs Bureau will impose the restrictions.

The strategy paper said if these are done, combating money laundering and terrorism financing activities will be easier.

The government has also set a target to develop an electronic database by December next year for sharing information among law enforcing and regulatory agencies such as Anti-Corruption Commission, Bangladesh Bank, customs authority and police.

Connectivity among the regulatory agencies for sharing the database would be established by June next year.

The strategy paper said strong coordinated efforts are required to analyse and unearth the money laundering cases as criminals use sophisticated methods.

For ensuring transparency in the ownership of legal entities, personal information of the owners or controllers of licensed entities will be reviewed and collected by December next year.

The strategy paper said, in Bangladesh, generally the organisations or registered entities such as corporations, limited companies, partnership firms and trusts are licensed or registered under different authorities under different laws.

These entities often do not have minimum public disclosure of personal information on controlling interest and ownership.

Due to a lack of capacity of the government, the Registrar of Joint Stock Companies and Firms (RJSC&F) is the main authority to register these entities.

Financial institutions cannot properly identify suspicious transactions due to a dearth of transparency and thus hinders law enforcing agencies from investigating and prosecuting money laundering and terror financing cases.

By using these entities, money launderers and terrorism financiers may get access to financial systems.

The government has set a target to make the RJSC&F fully automated by December this year to block this access. At the same time, the government will use national identification number as a unified identity number.

In order to improve transparency in financial reporting on money laundering and terrorism financing issues, the government will issue directives to incorporate a separate chapter dedicated to compliance issues on financial statements of reporting agencies by December this year.

The Daily Star/Bangladesh/ 26th June 2012

A branch of BASIC Bank Limited located at Pahartali organized a programme called ‘School Banking Campaign’ at its own premises on Saturday. Mohammad Mozammel Hossain noted banker and General Manager of Agrabad Corporate Branch of the Bank attended the programme as the chief guest while Assistant General Manager Didarul Alam of the Branch presided over the occasion.

Addressing the function Mozammel Hossain said school banking relates the students to the Banks as well as develops saving tendency among them.

“With BASIC’s school banking scheme, most of the students can accumulate capital for their future needs,” he added.

Students from 15 schools of Pahartali area participated in the programme. The function was attended, among others, by Director of ‘Charuta Ankon Shikka Kendro’ Sirajul Islam, Lieutenant (retired) MA Rashid, Osman Gani, Abdul Mannan, Jobayer Ahmed, Shahida Akter and Abdus Samad Majumdar.

The Independent/Bangladesh/ 25th June 2012