Uttara Bank’s Karwan Bazar branch was shifted at the new premises at Jamuna Bhaban at Karwan Bazar in the city on Sunday.

Iftekharul Islam, vice chairman of the board of directors of the Bank inaugurated the branch at the new premises, said a press release.

Shaikh Abdul Aziz, Managing Director and CEO, M A Matin, Additional Managing Director, Abu Ahmed and Md Fazlur Rahman, Deputy Managing Directors of the Bank were present on the occasion.

The Daily Sun/Bangladesh/ 28th Feb 2012

United Commercial Bank Limited (UCBL) has opened its 116th branch at Kanaipur in Faridpur recently.

M Shahjahan Bhuiyan, Managing Director of the Bank, formally inaugurated the branch as chief guest, said a press release.

Among others, M Shahidul Islam, Additional Managing Director, Mirza Mahmud Rafiqur Rahman, Deputy Managing Director, high officials of UCBL and local elites, were also present on the occasion.

M Shahjahan Bhuiyan said the Bank is firmly determined to spread over banking excellence in grass root level to boost up socio-economic development .

He said the Bank is committed to render best services to its clients with a wide range of network all over the country.

The Daily Sun/Bangladesh/ 28th Feb 2012

National Credit and Commerce (NCC) Bank Limited recently signed an agreement with Islamic Exchange Co to receive remittance from Qatar.

Mohammed Nurul Amin, managing director and CEO of NCC Bank, and Yousuf P Hameed, general manager of Islamic Exchange Co, signed the agreement on behalf of their respective sides, said a press release

Under this agreement, Bangladeshi expatriates can now remit their money from Qatar to Bangladesh in easier and faster manner through this official channel.

Ibrahim Abdulla, vice president of Islamic Exchange Co, and A B M Jashim Uddin Ahamed, vice president of NCC Bank, were also present at the fucntion.

The Daily Sun/Bangladesh/ 28th Feb 2012

The Bangladesh Bank (BB) has undertaken a new policy to stimulate the bonds market.

At a tri-monthly coordination meeting, the BB on Monday urged the Insurance Development Regulatory Authority (IDRA) to enhance their investment in the government securities.

A regulatory guideline for life insurance companies to investment 30 percent of their paid-up capital in the government securities was suggested so that the banks can sell out their bonds for raising liquidity position.

BB governor presided over the meeting, while representatives from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), IDRA, Department of Cooperatives, Micro-Credit Regulatory Authority (MCRA) and Registrar of Joint Stock Companies and Firms, deputy governors of the BB Najnin Sultana and SK Sur Chowdhury were present.

Emerging from the meeting, SK Sur Chowdhury said the meeting discussed the ways to develop the bond market, enhance liquidity of banks and ensuring stability in the capital market.

He said a strong bond market would play an important role in developing the country’s capital market.

The BB also urged the stakeholders of the coordination committee to keep close coordination with the BB to avoid baseless rumours for the overall development of the economy.

The Daily Sun/Bangladesh/ 28th Feb 2012

HSBC Holdings Plc, Europe's biggest bank, predicted growth in Asia and other emerging markets would outweigh sluggish European economies this year as it posted a $21.9 billion profit for 2011, the best outturn by a western bank so far.

HSBC added, however, that success in emerging markets was becoming increasingly expensive, with costs rising 10 percent, or $3.9 billion - a third of that due to higher pay.

Banks across Europe have been posting billions of dollars of losses as the euro zone sovereign debt crisis has eroded the value of their government bond holdings and hit their trading operations, and as they strive to meet tough new rules aimed at preventing a repeat of the 2007-09 banking crisis.

HSBC has been relatively unscathed because it makes more than three quarters of its profits outside Europe and north America. It remained upbeat on Monday about prospects for emerging markets despite fears that some are overheating and could see an abrupt slowdown in growth this year.

"We remain comfortable with the emerging markets (outlook) and are confident that GDP growth in emerging markets will be positive and China will have a soft landing," Chief Executive Stuart Gulliver told reporters on a conference call.

"We think there's some recent buoyancy in the US, so the real issue of negative focus is how the euro zone plays about," he added, predicting the euro zone economy would flatline this year, with "marked recessions" in some southern countries.

HSBC, with around 7,200 offices in 80 countries, said pretax profit rose 15 percent to $21.9 billion in 2011, just below analysts' average forecast of $22.2 billion in a Reuters poll.

The figure fell short of the group's record profit of $24.2 billion in 2007, but beat all other western banks that have reported so far for last year, including US rival JP Morgan, which made a $19 billion profit.

The world's most profitable banks in recent years have been China's ICBC, which made $32 billion in 2010, and China Construction Bank, which made $26.4 billion.

HSBC's profits were boosted by a $3.9 billion accounting gain on the value of its debt. Stripping that out, underlying pretax profit fell 6 percent to $17.7 billion, due in part to rising wages in emerging markets and to restructuring costs.

Gulliver, who is reshaping HSBC to cut annual costs by $3.5 billion, lift profitability and sharpen its focus on Asia, said he would step up his plan this year.

He said HSBC would continue to pay higher wages in emerging markets, where there is strong competition for bankers among international and local rivals, adding higher revenue from those areas showed the investment was worthwhile.

At 0945 GMT, HSBC shares in London were down 1.5 percent at 566.1 pence, lagging a 0.7 percent decline in the UK's benchmark FTSE 100 index .FTSE. The shares have beaten the STOXX Europe 600 banking index by 15 percent over the past year.

"They've had a good run so I can't get too enthusiastic, but they're (HSBC) going in the right direction and it's a good bet in a difficult sector," said Brown Shipley fund manager John Smith, who holds HSBC shares in his portfolio.

HSBC said profits at its investment bank fell 24 percent to $7 billion, hurt as the euro zone debt crisis slowed capital markets activity in the second half of last year.

Loan impairment charges and other credit risk-related provisions, however, fell $1.9 billion to $12.1 billion.

The group said it paid out $4.2 billion in bonuses, down 2 percent on 2010. Banks are coming under intense pressure from politicians and the public to rein in pay awards because of the role of the sector in the world's economic problems.

HSBC said it paid one of its bankers, whom it declined to name, 8 million pounds ($12.7 million) last year. Gulliver was the second-highest paid employee, getting 7.2 million pounds -- including a 2.2 million bonus -- down from 8.4 million in 2010 when he ran the investment bank.

Peter Wong, chief executive of HSBC in Asia, said: 'As our strong financial performance shows, HSBC's strategy is delivering results in the Asia-Pacific region across all geographies and the Global Businesses.

“It is clear that HSBC Asia-Pacific is well positioned for sustainable growth. As economic expansion in our region continues to outpace that of the developed world, I believe our international connectivity is a core strength serving our customers locally, regionally and globally.”

The Daily Star/Bangladesh/ 28th Feb 2012