Dutch-Bangla Bank Limited (DBBL) has recently signed a participatory deal with Bangladesh Bank to extend and expand the Re-Financing facility in SME sector. K.S. Tabrez, Managing Director of DBBL and Mr. Shukomol Singh Chowdhury, General Manager of SME and special program’s department, has signed the deal for their own organization.

This deal will cover the projects outside Dhaka and Chittagong metropolitan. These projects may come under re-financing facility only after fulfilling certain conditions and the perimeter of the financing will be from Tk.50,000 to Tk.70,00,000.

Executive Director of Bangladesh Bank Mr. Harunur Rashid Chowdhury, Asst. Managing Director of DBBL Mohammad Mosaddikur Rahman, Chief of SME sector Mohammad Abu Kawsar and many other senior officials from both organizations were present in this program.

Press Release: Prothom Alo/17 Dec 2010        

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) wants Bangladesh Bank (BB) to seriously address concerns with the commercial banks' over exposure to the stockmarket.

“We hope Bangladesh Bank will work diligently to ensure that banks and their subsidiaries take necessary action to mitigate the risks from stock market volatility,” said David Cowen, deputy division chief of IMF for Asia-Pacific and team leader of the visiting team.

An IMF mission visited Bangladesh on December 6-15 to discuss the overall macroeconomic situation under Article IV consultation and possible lending arrangements for $1 billion.

The IMF agreed to lend Bangladesh $1 billion under its Extended Credit Facility (ECF) programme, provided its board approves in February.

The loan will be available on a concession (at less than 1 percent interest rate), but Bangladesh has to give IMF some formal commitments, such as fiscal reforms, monetary operations and moves to strengthen the financial sector.

The IMF team looks concerned with stockmarket volatility and the banks' over-involvement in it. Cowen said the banking sector, as a whole, needs risk-based supervision to ensure new capital adequacy requirements.

He said Bangladesh Bank (BB) as the regulator has issued a number of circulars, including setting the investment limit at 10 percent of a bank's liabilities, to reduce risk exposure of banks to the stockmarket.

“BB should closely monitor that all those regulations are being followed by the banks. If necessary, other action may be taken,” said the IMF team leader. The IMF also advised the central bank to continue work with the Securities and Exchange Commission in this regard.

On the cap imposed by BB on the bank lending rates, Cowen said, “We want removal of most of the caps and the banks should be allowed greater flexibility in setting the rates."

On Bangladesh's macroeconomic outlook, the IMF said the country will grow better in the current fiscal year because of improvements in garment exports and investment demand.
“Growth is expected to be slightly above 6 percent this fiscal year and inflation at an average of 7 percent on anticipated moderation of commodity price increases,” said Cowen in his written statement.

The IMF observed that the balance of payment (BOP) will be under pressure due to a significant increase in import payments for fuel, food and cotton. In addition, remittance is expected to fall on a year-on-year basis for the ongoing decline in migrant worker outflow, adding pressures on the BOP.

The budget deficit is also likely to increase by 0.75 percentage points of GDP to around 4 percent this year, it said.

Source: The Daily Star, Bangladesh/16th Dec 2010

Dhaka, Dec 15 (bdnews24.com) — The government has decided to offload more than three million shares of the state-run Rupali Bank Limited in the secondary market.

A news posting on the Dhaka Stock Exchange website noted that 30,68,750 shares of the bank would be brought to the secondary market for trading.

Earlier on November 24, the government declared to float in the market 24.55 percent or 28,57,380 shares of the bank.

In November the government decided to offload more shares of state-run companies already listed with bourses in the wake of overheating of the capital market.

Investment Corporation of Bangladesh (ICB) would work as the issue manager for Rupali.

Currently, only a limited number of shares of 12 SOEs are traded on the stock market, while the government maintains a strict policy of holding over 51 percent of the shares to continue its 'management authority' on the entities.

But the recent hype in the capital market forced the government to change its position while the parliamentary watchdog on finance ministry recommended for offloading more shares of the SOEs to increase share supply in the capital market.

Source: bdnews24.com/15th Dec 2010

Bangladesh Krishi Bank (BKB), a government bank specialised to finance agricultural sector of the country, has launched two new branches in Comilla and Munshigonj recently. Local MP Professor M Ali Ashraf inaugurated the bank's 963rd branch at Joyagh Bazar under Chandina upazila in Comilla. While the bank's 964th branch at Baraikhali Bazar under Sreenagar upazila in Munshigonj was inaugurated by local MP Sukumar Ranjan Ghosh on the same day.

According to the bank's website, 130 of the total branches of the bank are located in urban areas while the rest are in rural areas. The primary objective of BKB is to provide credit facilities to the farmers for the development of agriculture and entrepreneurs engaged in development of agro-based and cottage industries.

News Source: Daily Sun/17 Dec 2010

One of the recognized bank with huge online facility, Dutch-Bangla Bank Limited (DBBL) has opened its 91st Branch at Bijoynagar in the city on Tuesday. K S Tabrez, managing director of the bank formally inaugurated the branch equipped with On-line banking facilities from the opening day, said a press release. K S Tabrez, managing director of the bank in his address informed that DBBL provides a wide array of banking products and financial services to its retail and corporate customers.

With a variety of delivery channels like ATMs, Fast Tracks besides, branch networks at important places of the country,  DBBL is calling upon the local people and business community to avail the most up-to-date banking facilities by maintaining a bank account with DBBL, said the Managing Director. Among others, Md Mosaddiqur Rahman, deputy managing director of the bank was present on the occasion.

                                                                                                                                          News Source: Daily Sun/16 Dec 2010