For the first time ever in Bangladesh, BRAC Bank Ltd. (BBL) has launched Bangladesh's first e-commerce banking platform in alliance with Visa, thereby opening an opportunity for Bangladeshi citizens to use Visa cards for shopping online. Any Bangladeshi with internet access now can shop online with a Visa card or any card issued by BRAC Bank. Attending as the chief guest, Dr. Atiur Rahman, Governor of Bangladesh Bank, inaugurated the country’s first e-commerce banking system at a city hotel.

Md. A. (Rumee) Ali, Chairman of BBL, Syed Mahbubur Rahman, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of BBL and Uttam Nayak, Group Country Manager (India and South Asia) of Visa were present along with senior officials, leading merchants and clients.

“The central bank has continuously been facilitating bringing banking to the doorsteps of the general mass. This online shopping is another milestone in that journey. I am happy to inaugurate this service brought first time in Bangladesh and that too by a Bangladeshi bank,” the Banglaesh Bank Governor said.
Md. A. (Rumee) Ali, said, “I think this will pave the way for many companies to start doing business online.
This hopefully will be the start of online business revolution for Bangladeshi companies enabling them to keep up with the rest of the world and innovate how they interact with their customers.”
Uttam Nayak in his speech said that e-commerce would not only reduce cost of transaction but also save couple of hours rather than shopping physically.
E-commerce facilitates remote payments which are better than face-to-face payments, he said and adding it will give an opportunity to include more people in banking transaction, one’s who buying goods and other’s who selling goods.
Firoz Ahmed Khan, Head of Retail Banking, while demonstrating the new service features at the launching ceremony said that the new shopping platform would work just any other developed online stores work.
Consumers can browse and choose their products on either the online super-stores or individual shops and then they can add the products to their cards through checking out finally, they simply need to put their details from BBL or Visa card.
Online ticket booking with ones credit card and general retail purchases online have been something many credit card holders have been waiting to be able to do for years while many working Bangladeshis facing problems as the shops are normally closed at 8 pm., he said.
BRAC Bank online shopping is open for 24 hours making it possible for retail products, companies and stores to keep earning long after shopping hours are over, he added.

Small investors Sunday urged the government to take "immediate" steps to bring back traders' confidence, which has shattered after the tempest in the stock market.  They also demanded the closure of the capital market unless atmosphere in bourses is back to normal. The demand came at a press briefing by Bangladesh Share Investors' Association (BSIA), a platform of small investors, in the city, where stock traders placed a 15-point demand. Share trading on Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) was halted since Thursday following a 600-point fall in five minutes in share prices. Anarchy reigned in the city's financial district Motijheel, where law enforcers had to clash with thousands of retail investors and riot police. The investors censured the circuit breaker system for its failure to stabilise the market and said the procedure should be stopped because the DSE authorities are not well-equipped to handle it.

"The government must take proper steps to bring back investors' confidence as early as possible," BSLA convener Mizan-Ur-Rashid Chowdhury said. He said that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and DSE had invited investors to invest in the market. "But now gamblers and vested quarters plundered our money like pick-pockets. We didn't expect that the 96-like debacle will be staged again," he added. The investors sought measures to ensure participation of traders in each meeting before taking any stock market-related decision. They also demanded cancellation of share trading session that took place on January 20 as it crossed the index circuit breaker limit of 225 points by hitting at 600 point. The leaders of the organisation also raised questions about the responsibility of merchant banks, institutional investors and state-owned investment bank - ICB as they acted like small investors when the market had consecutive fall.

"The market has become unstable due to the conspiracy by a vested quarter," BSLA co-convener M Zihad Jahangir Alam said. He urged the authorities to investigate into BO accounts transacted over the last 30 days to find out whose accounts traded "unusually". "Punitive action must be taken against those who are responsible for the recent market crash," he said. The grouping's other demands include cancellation of the premium system in any IPO and withdrawal of all cases filed against general investors.

News: Financial Express/Bangladesh/24 Jan 2011

Southeast Bank Limited signed a participatory agreement with Bangladesh Bank at the head office of the central bank to avail of refinancing facility for Small and Medium Enterprises Financing on Sunday. Mr. Mahbubul Alam, Managing Director of Southeast Bank Limited and Mr Sukamal Sinha Choudhury, General Manager, SME & Special Programs Department of BB signed the agreement on behalf of respective sides. Mr. Md. Harunur Rashid Chowdhury, Executive Director of Bangladesh Bank presided over the meeting.

Through this agreement Southeast Bank will be able to avail refinancing facility from an ADB supported fund amounting USD 95.00 million equivalent to Tk 6.67 billion. Bangladesh Bank has been entrusted with the responsibility to administer the fund. The fund will help Southeast Bank to widen and expand its SME lending program in rural and semi urban areas at a subsidized rate.

Senior officials of SME and Special Programs Department of Bangladesh Bank attended the ceremony. From Southeast Bank Mr. Mohammed Gofran, Deputy Managing Director, Mr. Panu Ranjan Das, Vice President, Mr. M.M. Khaled Omar, Senior Assistant Vice President & Head of SME, Mr. Donald Rosette, Assistant Vice President and Head of R&D were also present.

Source: Financial Express/Bangladesh/24 Jan 2011

BASIC Bank Limited achieved Tk 2.15 billion (215 crore) operating profit for the year 2010. Bank's Chairman Sheikh Abdul Hye Bacchu disclosed this, while speaking as the chief guest at its first branch and operational managers conference in the city recently, said a press release. Chaired by BASIC Bank Acting Managing Director Sk. Monzur Morshed, the conference was attended, among others, by its directors Jahangir Akhand Salim, Shubhashish Bose, Neelufar Ahmed, Shakhawat Hossain, Prof Kazi Akhtar Hossain, Md Fakhrul Islam and Md Anwarul Islam.

All general managers, operational in-charges, branch-in-charges and other executives of the head office of the bank attended the conference. The executives of the bank and branch in-charges reviewed the yearly business performance of 2010 and have taken an action plan for strengthening its operational activities of 2011. Mr Bacchu thanked all officials of the bank for achieving the operating profit in 2010. He stressed on selection of potential borrower and urged the executives to keep close supervision and monitoring of the loan for keeping the classification at the minimum level. Mr Morshed called for united efforts to accelerate business growth of the bank.

News: Financial Express/Bangladesh/20 Jan 2011

Vehicle protection provider company FINDER (a concern of Monico Limited) and Standard Chartered Bank and  have signed an agreement through which the Credit Card holders of the Bank will enjoy special InstaBuys @ 0% offers at FINDER. FINDER works as an intelligent watchdog for any personal or commercial vehicle. No matter where the vehicle is, with FINDER customer can trace it, track it and even trail it through internet & mobile phone.

FINDER provides with the real time tracking & monitoring via web, engine on/off through SMS, route & destination view via the web applications, distance monitoring, speed/distance report, location report, start/stop report and many more. This service will surely be a very effective one for the investors and will provide more security to the banks.

News Source:Financial Express/Bangladesh/20 Jan 2011