Bangladesh Army Chief and TBL Chairman General Mohammad Abdul Mubeen, NDC, PSC seen at the 13th AGM of the Bank in Dhaka Monday.

Trust Bank Limited (TBL) has approved 10 percent cash dividend and 10 percent bonus share for its shareholders for the year 2011.

The approval came at the Bank’s 13th annual general meeting (AGM) held at Golf Garden, Army Gold Club, Dhaka Cantonment Wednesday, said a press release Monday.

Total financial growth, audit report and future plan of the Bank were presented at the meeting in presence of a large number of shareholders.

Bangladesh Army Chief and TBL Chairman General Mohammad Abdul Mubeen, NDC, PSC was present at the meeting.

Bangladesh Army’s Adjutant General and TBL vice chairman Major General Ashraf Abdullah Yusuf, managing director and chief executive officer Shah Alam were also present.

The Daily Sun/Bangladesh/ 12th June 2012

Bangladesh Bank Governor Dr Atiur Rahman has expressed dissatisfaction over various anomalies found in scheduled banks engaged in unhealthy practices, especially regarding interest rates offered for deposit and lending.

At a meeting with officials of Department of Banking Inspection (DBI) of the central bank Sunday, the governor said the entire banking sector will fall into peril due to risky investment by banks.

A BB high official, who attended the meeting, said the governor wanted to know why irregularities in scheduled banks are increasing despite the central bank’s repeated advice to avoid approving non-productive credit and to provide financial services following the guidelines. The official who wished to remain anonymous said the DBI officials reported that both the state-owned and private banks are engaging in bad practices over lending and mobilising deposits.

“The Governor has become worried over such irregularities found in scheduled banks and asked DBI officials to take firm stance on Bangladesh Bank guidelines and initiate punitive actions against bank managements which won’t abide by the rules,” said the official quoting the governor.

He said the BB inspection teams found a rise in classified loans in recent times. He said classified loans in the banking sector in May 2011 was 6.12 percent which now (May 2012) stands at 6.57 percent.

He said many loans have become classified because of inappropriate assessment of loan proposals.

The Daily Sun/Bangladesh/ 12th June 2012

Farman R Chowdhury, managing director of ONE Bank Limited, seen at a raffle draw in Dhaka.

ONE Bank Limited observed ‘May’ as customer service month this year.

During this month, the customers of the Bank submitted their opinions on different services of the Bank, said a press release Monday.

A raffle draw was held Thursday based on the feedback from customers of all branches.

Farman R Chowdhury, managing director, announced names of 25 winners through raffle draw.

Johora Bebe, deputy managing director, and other departmental heads were also present in the raffle draw.

The Daily Sun/Bangladesh/ 12th June 2012

Bangladesh Bank Governor Dr Atiur Rahman, and Chief Representative of JICA Bangladesh Office Dr. Takao Toda seen at an agreement signing ceremony at the BB office in Dhaka Monday.

Bangladesh Bank (BB) on Monday opened a Tk 5 billion fund to provide financing facilities to the country's small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

Under the two-step fund, provided by Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), 41 banks and financial institutions (FIs) will be provided with re-finance or pre-finance for lending to SMEs.

The fund will be disbursed to the participatory Banks and FIs at a maximum interest rate of 5 percent for medium (2-year) and long term (8-year) period. The Banks and FIs may charge the market rate in case of lending.

BB has signed separate agreements with 22 participatory banks and 19 FIs to this effect.

BB Governor Dr Atiur Rahman and Chief Representative of JICA Bangladesh Office Dr. Takao Toda were present while the deals were signed during a function at BB headquarters on Monday.

While speaking at the function, Dr Atiur said the central bank has identified that there is a huge gap in the country’s financial market for the SMEs to get for mid-term and long-term funding for investment in technology and other productive areas.

Bangladesh Bank signed an agreement with JICA in 2010 for a fund worth 5000 million Japanese Yen as Overseas Development Assistance (ODA). Of the total fund, JICA has released 1000 million Yen (Tk 1 billion) in March this year, the BB governor informed the function.

He said the fund aims to develop a medium to long-term credit market to support the SMEs to meet their investment requirements.

JICA chief represen-tative in Bangladesh Takao Toda observed that Bangladesh would be able to create more job opportunities by financing the SME sector, which also has a huge potential to grow further like those in other Asian countries.

The Daily Sun/Bangladesh/ 12th June 2012

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will sit with Power Division officials today to know about the work progress of a series of under-construction power projects, implementation of which are at stake in the tenure of the present government due to fund constraints.

“PM will sit with us to discuss the power sector scenario and its financing,” Power Division Secretary M Abul Kalam Azad told daily sun yesterday.

The Power Division is worried over the implementation of 24 public and private sector power projects, with a stipulated production capacity of around 3,197 megawatt of power, by 2014 due to fund shortage.

A total of 13 out of 15 power projects being constructed under the private sector are yet to arrange funds to implement the projects. Besides, a public sector project has also failed to manage financing, Power Division officials said.

Through a letter recently, Power Division Secretary has informed the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) about the private sector sponsors’ failure to open letter of credits (LC) to import equipments for their projects due to liquidity crisis of the commercial banks.

Following the letter, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has decided to hold a meeting with the Power Division senior officials to discuss the issue, sources said. The government earlier had decided to implement the private sector power projects with 70 percent funding from foreign sources.

“We need support from the Finance Division, Banking Division and Bangladesh Bank to implement the power projects with 70 percent foreign funding,” Azad said in the letter.

In the letter, he also sought help from the central bank and other commercial banks to open LCs for the import of power project equipments.

“If the concerned authorities fail to address the issues, implementation of the power projects under the private sector in the next two years would become uncertain,” the letter said.

Prime Minister’s Power and Energy Adviser Dr Tawfiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury told daily sun that the government is still stick to its plan to produce more electricity through private sector investment.

He also said the government would assist the private sponsors in mobilising foreign funds to implement their projects.

The World Bank has already refused to finance two mega power projects at Bibyana, awarded to Summit Group, a concern of Civil Aviation and Tourism Minister Faruk Khan’s family.

Meanwhile, two other power projects awarded to Aslamul Huq, a ruling party lawmaker from Dhaka-14 (Mirpur), are yet to mobilise fund, concerned officials of Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) said. The lawmaker has no previous experience in power sector.

Besides, three mega coal-based power projects owned by Orion Group have also failed to manage funds.

According to Power Division, the government has so far added 3,330MW of electricity to the national grid in last three years from 47 power projects.

The present daily demand for electricity is recorded at 6,500MW against the supply of 5,000-5500MW.

“I think it’s a failure of BPDB to sign contracts with private sponsors without ensuring foreign funding to implement the projects,” said Professor M Tamim, former special assistant on power, energy and mineral resources to the chief adviser of a caretaker government.

He said none of the local commercial banks would be able to assist funding for the projects.

The Daily Sun/Bangladesh/ 12th June 2012