Financial weekly Industry awarded 12 commercial banks, eight of which have strong ratings while four were recognised for their high contribution to remittance channelling.

The weekly also awarded three best remittance recipient bankers at a function in the city on Saturday.

Eight highly-rated banks include Prime Bank Ltd, Islami Bank Bangladesh Ltd, Pubali Bank Ltd, Arab-Bangladesh

Bank Ltd, Al-Arafah Islami Bank Ltd, Dutch-Bangla Bank Ltd, National Bank Ltd and State Bank of India.

The best four remittance channelling banks are Sonali Bank Ltd, Janata Bank Ltd, Agrani Bank Ltd and Southeast Bank Ltd.

Besides, the awarded bankers were named as Md Abdul Mannan, managing director of Islami Bank Bangladesh Ltd, Helal Ahmed Chowdhury, managing director of Pubali Bank Ltd and Shamsul Huda Khan, deputy managing director of National Bank Ltd.

Former Finance Adviser to a caretaker government Dr AB Mirza Azizul Islam attended the function as chief guest.

With Industry editor Enayet Karim in the chair, the function was also attended by Bangladesh Bank’s former deputy governor Ataul Haque, Association of Bankers Bangladesh president Nurul Amin and Global Economists Forum president Shah Md. Nurul Alam.

“Banks must shun their profiteering tendency if they want to take their services to the doorsteps of the people,” said Dr. Mirza Azizul Islam.

He observed that there is a huge gap between deposit and lending interest rates.

“If not run in appropriate manner, the country’s banking sector would face a setback,” warned the veteran economist.

He added the banking sector’s failure did lead the US and the EU economies to plunge into recessions in recent time.

The banks would need to strengthen internal vigilance, reporting requirement, internal audit and maintaining proper risk management to ensure their smooth running, Dr Mirza Aziz suggested.

ABB president emphasised the growth of private sector to uplift the economy. “The country’s private sector holds 70 percent of total asset and liability in the banking sector, which amounts to Tk 350 billion.”

“Challenges are ahead for the banking sector as it will have to implement the BASEL-III,” Nurul Amin added.

Islami Bank MD Md. Abdul Mannan informed that the bank has 6.7 million depositors and provided financing to over 700,000 entrepreneurs across the country.

He said Islami Bank has also distributed micro credit to 650,000 families in 17,000 villages across the country. Besides, the bank’s SME financing now amounts to Tk 170 billion.

Industry editor Enayet Karim alleged that the banks usually do profit engineering rather than removing their basic weaknesses that ultimately impede the banking sector’s expected success.

News: The Daily Sun/Bangladesh/18-Nov-12