Rajshahi Krishi Unnayan Bank (RAKUB) has approved a policy guideline for launching green banking aimed at freeing the environment from pollution.

The approval was given in the Bank’s 377th Meeting of the Board of Directors held at the Head Office with Chairman Prof Shah Newaz Ali in the chair in Rajshahi yesterday.

From now on, the bank will not invest to the factories polluting natural environment through emitting black smoke, ash and harmful sound.

On the contrary, the Bank will encourage more production and marketing of bio-fertilizer, biogas and solar panel.

With its internal management, the Bank will collect information through e- banking system instead of paper document and will hold video and audio conference with the officials and employees instead of physical travel.

In addition to arranging natural light and air in the head office building, the Bank will install energy savings bulb and other equipments, solar panel, IPS and UPS in its offices.

The meeting discussed on how to make the Bank’s operational and commercial activities more dynamic through strengthening the credit support for both farm and non-farm prospective fields.

The Daily Sun/Bangladesh/ 28th March 2012

Bangladesh gets closer to the $1 billion credit promised by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as the lender plans to place a proposal for the loan at its board meeting on April 11.

The credit will come in six instalments and $167 million will be available for the current fiscal year if the board approves the proposal, according to officials of the finance ministry.

The government and the IMF have already finalised a number of reforms the government will have to carry out under the scheme.

The commitments the finance minister made in his budget speech about the reforms have also been included in the list of conditions for getting the loan, the officials said.

The donor agency had earlier set some prior actions that were to be fulfilled by the government before the loan proposal is placed at the IMF board meeting for approval.

The government has already implemented the prior actions. The last of those -- approving the draft value added tax law in the cabinet -- has also been done.

Besides the prior actions, the IMF imposed 16 conditions, which include the demutualisation of Dhaka and Chittagong bourses by December.

The government will have to fulfil some other conditions such as introduction of an automated taxpayer identification number and adoption of an automatic adjustment mechanism for retail prices of petroleum to ensure full pass-through of international prices.

By June, the new VAT law has to be placed in parliament and an implementation plan and timetable for the new law has to be approved by the finance minister, according to another IMF condition.

Another law, the Banking Companies Act (amendment), has to be placed in parliament by June. The act will aim at giving Bangladesh Bank the sole legal supervisory and regulatory authority over all commercial banks, and setting proper criteria for major shareholders, board members and executive officers of the banks.

The IMF also asked the government to design a set of new regulations on loan classification and loan-loss provisioning, in line with the international best practices, by June 2014.

The IMF said a new organisational structure of the National Board of Revenue to support VAT implementation has to be approved by the finance minister by September.

The IMF also asked the central bank to issue another order by September to adjust the new amended banking law, establishing a limit on a commercial banks shareholdings in the stockmarket to 25 percent of its total regulatory capital.

The Daily Star/Bangladesh/ 28th March 2012

Southeast Bank Limited expanded its branch network further by opening its 85th Branch at Chokoria, Cox’s Bazar Sunday. Mahbubul Alam, Managing Director of Southeast Bank Limited formally inaugurated the Branch as the chief guest.

Financial Express/Bangladesh/ 26th March 2012

Jamuna Bank Limited (JBL) Sunday launched its three new products to make the banking easier and more convenient to the people.

JBL Director and chairman of Jamuna Bank Foundation (JBF) Alhaj Nur Mohammed launched the products as the chief guest at a 'meet the press' programme at the National Press Club.

The new products are: Mutho Banking (mobile banking solution), Earn First Deposit (instant interest payment fixed deposit) and NRB banking.

Presided over by the Bank's Managing Director Md Motior Rahman, the launching ceremony was addressed, among others, by its Deputy Managing Directors Md Abul Shahjahan and Md Mozammel Hussain.

'Mutho Banking' will bring the banking service at the Bank customers' finger, allowing them to do banking transaction on mobile phone without making any call, rather using SMS.

Under 'Mutho Banking', other mobile-based services include: mobile recharge, utility bill-payment, merchant payment, transaction alert and notification, mini statement, cheque book request, stop payment request, request to block lost cards and inquiry of balance, branch/ATM location, foreign exchange rate and products.

'Earn First Deposit' is a kind of fixed deposit scheme, where the depositors will get calculated interest at the time of deposition of their fund, while 'NRB banking' offers various deposit schemes, services and investment opportunities for non-resident Bangladeshis (NRBs).

Mr Nur Mohammed said that the Board of Directors of the Bank recently decided to open more branches at the country's rural areas in a bid to broaden the financial inclusion.

Financial Express/Bangladesh/ 26th March 2012

The Bangladesh Bank (BB) has shifted its board of directors' meeting to April 4 from March 27, the day scheduled for approving new commercial banks, officials said.

The names of 19 proposed commercial banks, including three non-resident Bangladeshi (NRB) banks, will be placed at the board meeting for approval.

"We've shifted the date of our board meeting as some BB directors will attend an important meeting of the national economic council (NEC) on the same day," an executive director of BB told the FE Sunday.

The chairman, along with three directors of the BB board, will attend the NEC meeting, the highest-level policy makers' meet, the official said while explaining the main reason behind shifting the date of the scheduled board meeting.

Currently, the central bank has a nine-member board of directors.

Meanwhile, the technical evaluation committee has already submitted its report, with scores of all 16 applications selected, to the application evaluation committee for establishing the new private commercial banks (PCBs).

Talking to the FE, another BB official said the technical evaluation committee had scored the applications after scrutinising their pros and cons.

"The application evaluation committee is now working on giving the job a final shape," the central bank official said, adding that a report with ranking of all the 16 proposed banks would be placed before the board for approval.

A four-member separate application evaluation committee, headed by Senior Deputy Governor of BB Abul Quasem, has been formed to finalise the evaluation report on the applications.

Earlier, 37 applications were submitted with the central bank for setting up new PCBs. Of them, 21 were rejected by a preliminary committee due mainly to the lack of necessary papers and documents.

On the other hand, names of the three proposed NRB banks -- NRB Commercial Bank Limited, NRB Bank Limited and NRB Bank Limited -- were placed before the board on March 15 for approval, but no final decision was taken at that meeting.

"The board will take the final decision on approval of the new banks, both PCBs and those involving NRBs," the central bank official noted.

Meanwhile, sources said a total of eight new commercial banks, including three NRB banks, might get approval at the upcoming board meeting.

Currently, a total of 47 commercial banks are in operation in Bangladesh.

Financial Express/Bangladesh/ 26th March 2012