Head of Consumer Banking, Standard Chartered Bank Sandeep Bose looking at his colleagues donating blood during the programme of Standard Chartered Bank along with Bangladesh Red Crescent Society at the Bank's Head Office recently.

As part of ongoing employee volunteering initiatives, Standard Chartered Bank has recently organized a blood donation program along with Bangladesh Red Crescent Society at the Bank's Head Office. A total of 179 bags of bloods were collected in a single day with participation from employees almost all departments including female employees of the Bank.

Financial Express/Bangladesh/ 10th April 2012

The companies, supplying different types of products including ATM cards to the banks, are allegedly being forced to open accounts at some respective banks for getting their payments.

However, the bank insiders told the FE that there was no official policy or decision of having mandatory account at the concerned banks for giving payment to the supplier companies against their services and products.

"No bank can officially force the supplier companies (or any other person) to open account," they said, adding that some bank officials might informally have asked or requested the supplier companies to open accounts at their own banks to mitigate the banks' ongoing deposit crisis to some extent.

An official of such a victim supplier company told the FE that they were verbally, in some cases in written, were asked to open account at the concerned banks if they wanted to get payment of their services and products provided to the banks.

The banks' officials expressed their inability to issue any cheque or pay order against any payment of any kind of service or product, he said.

When contacted, a concerned bank official, against whom such a claim was made, denied the allegation and said that they always give payments to the supplier companies through 'cheque or pay order'.

Expressing helplessness over the calls of most of the banks-cum-clients to open accounts at their branches, a victim supplier-official posed a question, "Is it possible or logical to open separate accounts at all banks?"

"We can neither open many account nor directly deny their requests because they are our clients," he said.

Financial Express/Bangladesh/ 10th April 2012

Bank Asia and Hajj Agencies Association of Bangladesh (Haab) on Monday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on receiving Hajj fees from Haab and its members and help them with withdrawal of the deposited money from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for making payment of house rent and other approved costs, says a press release.

Under the agreement, the Haab and its member agencies will open accounts and obtain transaction services across all the branches of Bank Asia and use the Bank’s services for receiving Hajj fees and remittance processing to Saudi Arabia (Mecca), as per foreign exchange guidelines of Bangladesh Bank.

The Bank will issue Visa and Master card debit/credit to Haab members without any membership fees and maintain their accounts with the Bank. The Haab will also enjoy prepaid Hajj Card facility without any charge.
In presence of Md Mehmood Husain, president and managing director of the Bank, Mohammed Roshangir, deputy managing director and chief business officer (Corporate) of the Bank and Jamal Uddin Ahmed, president of Haab, signed the agreement on behalf of the respective sides.

Deputy Managing Directors of the Bank--Aminul Islam, SM Khorshed Alam and Humaira Azam, along with  Sajjad Haider, senior vice president and head of corporate liability marketing and Abdur Rouf Bhuiyan, first assistant vice president, corporate liability marketing and vice president of Haab Golam Kibria and finance secretary Mozammel Hossain Kamal among others, were present.

The Independent/Bangladesh/ 10th April 2012

Sayeed H. Chowdhury has been elected Chairman of ONE Bank Limited for one-year term during a meeting of its Board of Directors recently.

Asoke Das Gupta was also elected as Vice Chairman of the Bank at the meeting, said a press release.

Sayeed H. Chowdhury, who obtained his BSc (Honours) degree in Economics from the UK, is the founder chairman and Chief Executive Officer of HRC Group.

He is a member of the British Institute of Management.

Chowdhury is also the chairman of Media New Age Ltd. and Information Services Network Ltd. He is the president of Bangladesh Ocean Going Shipowners’ Association (BOGSOA) and Chairman of the Editorial Board of the National Bengali daily ‘Jaijai Din’.

The Daily Sun/Bangladesh/ 10th April 2012

Coming up with a detailed explanation of allowing new banks, Bangladesh Bank (BB) yesterday said entry of the new banks would heighten the quality of financial services by increasing competition in the banking sector.

Explaining the economic context and rationale behind issuing new bank licences, the central bank said the economy has grown and the banking system has become more competitive when there are a large number of under-banked people in Bangladesh.

The BB said while the economy has grown and the banking system has become more competitive, 45 per cent of the population still remain unbanked.

The population per branch (21,065) and the ratio of loan accounts per 1,000 adults (42) suggests that the outreach of the formal financial sector is lower than in India (14,485 and 124 respectively) and Pakistan (20,340 population per branch and 47 loan accounts per 1,000).

It said the capital infusion by these new banks would augment the banking system’s capacity to meet the credit needs of the expanding corporate sector. Currently, because of limitations on large exposures, large corporations must approach many banks simultaneously with their credit needs, which then have to be stitched together in syndicate or participation loans.

“The entrance of the new banks will add to the aggregate capital base of these existing syndications, allowing for larger loans to be granted for productive investment and job-creation,” the central bank said.

The Daily Sun/Bangladesh/ 10th April 2012