Md Fazlur Rahman

The central bank plans to step up its efforts to provide the much-needed financial services to the small and medium entrepreneurs (SME) across the country, officials said.

NEW GUIDELINES
Bangladesh Bank (BB) plans to update its guidelines on SME sector, prioritising a number of areas for the benefit of the entrepreneurs. BB has already published a guideline for the banks in this sector and a number of new areas will be added this year, officials said.

“In the updated guidelines, we will ask banks to keep a minimum grace period of six months to one year in case of term loans, as it takes time for the borrower-entrepreneur to generate money using the loan,” said an official.

He said a section of the entrepreneurs in the sector, like fashion houses, are keen to take loans and use them, but their business is mainly seasonal. “We will ask the banks to devise products so that such entrepreneurs can take loans three months ahead of the season e.g. the Eid, and can repay the loan at the end of the season.”

The updated version of the guidelines is due to be ready for dissemination by end February. Last year, the central bank prepared area-based plans and asked the banks grant loans in areas where a particular crop grows in abundance.

This year, BB will ask the banks to inform the central bank about their plans, the areas they want to cover and the amount of money they want to disburse, the official said.

“This will help us monitor the credit programme of the central bank.”

The new additions in the guideline will also require the banks to devise special products to cater to the needs of the growing number of women entrepreneurs.

BB also plans to look at the geographical distribution of the loans in the SME sector. “We will identify areas that receive more credits or less. It will help us broaden the credit coverage and help areas that do not get enough attention usually,” the official told the Daily Star.

CREDIT GUARANTEE SCHEME
The central bank is also planning to introduce credit guarantee scheme so that banks do not have to worry about reaching the SMEs.

Banks usually take into account the possible number of default loans while setting interest rates, which keeps the lending rates at high levels.

“If we can decrease the number of default loans through credit guarantee scheme then the banks will be eager to lend to more SMEs. But the government has to come forward to make this happen,” said a BB official.

In the past, the government introduced special schemes for small entrepreneurs. But officials said their experience was not satisfactory, as borrowers did not bother much to repay the loans, as they thought that they had taken money from the government.

On the other hand, banks also did not make efforts to recover the loans as they could easily recoup the loans from the scheme, eventually compelling the government to cancel the scheme as many borrowers defaulted on the loans.

Due to the prior unsavoury experiences, the central bank will not, this time, provide any guarantee; rather it is planning to set up a separate institution to handle the issue, the official said.

“The institution will run as a separate entity and will get premium to remain in the business. The central bank will provide the initial capital,” the BB official said.

News: The Daily Star /Bangladesh/17 Jan 2011

Md Golam Rabbani was promoted as deputy managing director of Prime Bank recently. Prior to this assignment, he was the senior executive vice president of the bank, said a statement.

Rabbani started his career in 1977 in Bangladesh Shilpa Rin Sangstha and joined Prime Bank on October 2001.

News: The Daily Star /Bangladesh/17 Jan 2011

The Annual Managers’ Conference-2011 of Southeast Bank Limited was held at a hotel in Cox’s Bazar.

Mahbubul Alam, managing director of the bank presided over the conference held recently, said a press release.

Alamgir Kabir, FCA, chairman of the bank was present as the chief guest at the conference. Directors and advisor, deputy managing directors, all of the head of branches and divisional heads of head office participated at the conference.

Last year’s business performance of the bank was reviewed at the conference. Business target of the bank for the year 2011 was determined and devised different winning strategies for business success.

Speaking on the occasion, chairman of the bank expressed satisfaction for achieving the annual profit target. He advised the business managers to achieve annual deposit, advance, export, import, and guarantee targets separately in addition to profit target from this year. He urged upon all of the bank employees to work in a Team and do business by strictly complying with necessary regulatory requirements, so that the shareholders, regulators, and customers become satisfied with our bank’s performance and service.

In his inaugural speech, Mahbubul Alam congratulated the employees for not only achieving bank’s annual profit target but also crossing it a great deal. He emphasised the need of honesty, dedication and courage of the employees to accomplish their respective duties. He told to work together to make this bank as a most admired and compliant bank.

He also declared this year as “Year of Consolidation”.

News: Daily Sun /Bangladesh/17 Jan 2011

Standard Bank recently come up with their intention to open a new exchange house in New York aiming to grab the remittance business. This bank has already become one of the leading commercial banks in Bangladesh and hence extending their network worldwide. S A Farooqui, Managing Director and CEO of Standard Bank said, "We are set to launch our remittance business operation in the top city of the world very soon." on Thursday in an interview. He said Bangladesh Bank has already given necessary permission in this regard and the bank is waiting for the final approval from the US side.

This will be a subsidiary exchange company of the bank in U S A. As a result, Bangladeshi expatriates will be able to remit their earnings easily under proper banking channel. The bank has also plans to open Exchange Houses in Spain and Australia in near future subject to the regulatory permission. "We opened 'Standard Exchange Co (UK) Ltd' on August 20, 2009 in London and we received BDT 1 billion remittance from UK through the new company," the Standard Bank chief said. Standard Bank started its commercial operation on June 3, 1999.

Standarar Bank is in operation with their 58 branches, and 10 more branches will be open this year, of which 8 will be urban and two will be rural. "During my tenure, the bank under the strong support from its board of directors and Bangladesh Bank as well experienced sustainable growth in all areas of business," Mr Farooqui said. According to the latest un-audited report, the bank achieved laudable growth in all areas of operation including raising capital, asset, deposit, advances, international business and profit. The Bank clocked significant growth in its business areas in the outgoing year. The Bank achieved around 90 per cent growth in operating profit, 48 per cent growth in deposit and 42 per cent growth in advance in 2010. "We always put thrust on developing the rural economy through disbursing loan to SME and agri-business and in testimony to our mission, we financed flower cultivation in Jessore," the Standard Bank chief added.

In line with the Bangladesh Bank thrust, the Standard Bank launched few projects to mitigate poverty which includes crop loan, live stock & poultry loan, fishery loan, agriculture machinery and equipment loan, poverty elevation scheme and crop mortgage loan. "We have so far selected two villages as 'adarsha village' (ideal village) aiming to make the villagers poverty-free through disbursing agriculture and rural credits," the Standard Bank chief executive said. The villages are Kurpala under Kotalipara upazila and Tungipara under Tungipara upazila.

Mr S A Farooqui, a senior banker began his career in 1973. Prior to join the Standard Bank as EVP in April of 1999, he worked in National Bank and Agrani Bank. He was promoted as the MD of Standard Bank on September 30, 2008.

News: Financial Express/Bangladesh/16 Jan 2011

Ibrahim Hossain Ovi

Prime Bank Investment, a subsidiary company of Prime Bank limited, is mulling over raising funds from alternative source to overcome dependency on bank loans.

In this regard, the company is going to organise a three-day long share market fair of Bangladesh at Whitechapel area in London from March 5 this year.

Local brokerage houses and merchant banks will take part at the fair, first of its kind, to draw the attention of the non-resident Bangladeshis to invest in Bangladesh share market.

President of the Bangladesh Merchant Bankers’ Association (BMBA), also CEO Prime Bank Investment Sheikh Mortuza Ahmed, said “We must have our own funds”.

“If we do not have enough funds we have to face liquidity shortage which creates shortage of cash flow in the share market,” he added.

He also said, “we are trying to raise funds from alternative sources so that we need not to dependent on banks for loans to avert further disaster in the stock market due to cash crunch.”

“We will seek cooperation from the market regulator to take up the initiative and follow the regulations in this regards,” he told daily sun.

“Collecting funds from alternative sources will not be wise decision as the share market is not stable at present,” Salahuddin Ahmed Khan, former DSE CEO said.

If it is done it should be based on the asset value of the company for reducing risk, he added. Institutional investments help stabilise the market as they are managed by the topnotch officials, said experts.

Many investors alleged that lenders frequently failed to give them margin loan at even 1:1 ratio, though the SEC now has set the margin loan ratio at 1:2. Fund crisis is still prevailing in the market, and the parent companies also failed to provide additional fund to the merchant banks, dealers said.

Currently, the source of funds for stock brokers and merchant banks is the parent companies and banks loans, they mentioned.

Due to shortage of funds, the stock market faced the steepest fall of 660 points on January 10 triggering the market watchdog to suspend trading of the bourse.

If funds are raised from the non-residents Bangladeshis, then it will increase participation of them into the country’s share market, said an expert.

Prime Bank Investment Ltd will sponsor the fair organised by UK-based media company Curry Life Events.

Curry Life Events organises different sorts of event in different parts of the globe including the UK and it also has got several publications and magazines.

Share market of Bangladesh is gaining with highest popularity among the NRBs and there is a great response from the expatriates in the UK and other countries in Europe, the company source said.

They are very much keen to participate in share business in Bangladesh as the government always encourages them to make more investments in the home.

The present government and the regulators are always working sincerely to remove obstacles against investment of non-¬residents and they also maintain a percentage of IPOs reserved for the NRB's, the source said.

Moreover, the interest of NRB's regarding Bangladesh share market is easily measured by looking at the size of application of IPO.

Syed Belal Ahmed of curry life events said “A large number of expatriates Bangladeshis living across the UK consider buying properties in Bangladesh as major prospective investments.

But now they want to diversify their investments and are showing interest in country’s share market, he said adding some NRBs have already invested in share market.

Hundreds of million of taka of NRBs remain idle which could easily be poured into the Bangladesh share market through proper guidance from the concerned bodies, he opined.