Muhammad Ali

Social Islami Bank Limited (SIBL) Monday completed 16 years of operation vowing to make it more technology-driven and mass-oriented.

"We are extremely happy to share the joyous moment of 16th anniversary and we have already taken some vigorous steps to turn the Bank into a modern financial entity aiming to consolidate its contribution to the development of the national economy," Managing Director of the Bank Muhammad Ali told the FE in an interview Monday.

The SIBL MD said that adoption of various IT-enabled services helped the bank reach from an alley to a highway with a theme slogan--continuous excellence.

"The adoption of modern IT-enabled services made us a real-time online bank and we are optimistic to go further to strengthen SIBL's contribution to the development of rural economy," Mr Ali said.
The bank earned a operating profit Tk 2.167 billion registering a whopping growth of 84.95 per cent till October 31, 2011. The capital adequacy ratio stood at 12.83.

The SIBL's capital, total deposit and net investment witnessed tremendous growth of 111.08 per cent, 62.37 per cent, 55.68 per cent respectively.
"The bank is also trying to focus on green banking considering the effect of climate change. Now we only approve projects having the environment-friendly provisions," the SIBL MD said.
"As part of green banking we are trying to operate a branch using solar energy and also making aware the customers avoiding paper-based banking, Mr Ali also said. 

The focused areas of SIBL are SME, agro-finance, remittance and alternative delivery channel.
A second generation bank, SIBL has now 74 branches with two subsidiary companies- SIBL Securities Ltd and SIBL Investment Ltd.
The SIBL Monday launched a new product on school banking titled 'Young Star Account' and on the first day four students opened accounts.
The bank earlier launched products titled Sonali Din, Shomridhir Shopan, Shachondo Protidin, Swapner Shiri, Shukher Thikana, Sabuj Chhaya, Shabuj Shayanho, Subarnalata, Subarnarekha, Shanchita and Zameel ATM Debit Card.

In testimony to the bank's growing progress, CRISL rated it A+ in long term and ST-2 in short term.
Standard Banking career in Sonali Bank in 1977, Mr Ali worked in different positions in National Bank Ltd, NCC Bank, Standard Bank Ltd and Social Islami Bank Ltd ahead of joining SIBL.
Meanwhile, to mark the 16th anniversary, the bank would honour eight eminent persons for making outstanding contributions in the field of respective areas. The SIBL award recipients are Prof Nurul Islam, Barrister Rafiqul Huq, Prof Abdullah Abu Sayeed, M Azizul Huq, Shaikh Siraj, Mahbubuz Zaman, Nilima Akhter Chowdhury and Haripad Kapali.

Source: The Finance/ Bangladesh/ 22th Nov 2011