Islami Bank Bangladesh Limited has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Hajj Agencies Association of Bangladesh (HAAB) recently, says a press release.
Under the agreement, HAAB will now use the ATM and online banking facilities of the branches of Islami Bank. In presence of Mohammad Abdul Mannan, managing director of Islami Bank Bangladesh Limited, Mohd Shamsul Haque, deputy managing director, and Jamal Uddin Ahmed, president of HAAB, signed the agreement. 
Deputy managing directors of Islami Bank Bangladesh Limited-- Md Habibur Rahman, Muhammad Abul Bashar, Syed Abdullah Mohammad Saleh, Md Habibur Rahman Bhuiyan, AKM Abdul Malek Chowdhury, Md. Mahbub-ul-Alam, and senior vice president of HAAB Md Golam Faroque, vice president Golam Kibria, and executive committee members Md Shah Ali were present.

News: The Independent / Bangladesh/ 24-April-2012

Dutch-Bangla Bank Limited (DBBL) signed an agreement with Grameenphone (GP) Ltd. to provide mobile banking services to its customers recently in the city, says a press release. The agreement was signed by Tore Johnsen, chief executive officer of Grameenphone, and K S Tabrez, managing director of Dutch-Bangla Bank.
As the country's first and largest mobile banking service provider, Dutch-Bangla Bank will offer various services to Grameenphone customers which include the largest number of outlets and agent network, most affordable rates, fully compliant and monitored network, small and large scale salary disbursements, remittance, fund transfer to other phones, balance check and statement check.

News: The Independent / Bangladesh/ 24-April-2012

The 6th Extra-Ordinary General Meeting (EGM) and the 29th Annual General Meeting (AGM) of Pubali Bank Limited were held at Rajendrapur BRAC-CDM, Gazipur, a press release said on Monday.

Hafiz Ahmed Mazumder, MP, Chairman, Board of Directors of the bank presided over the meetings.

At the EGM, the shareholders unanimously approved a proposal to increase the authorised capital of the bank from Tk 10 billion to Tk 20 billion.

At the AGM, the shareholders approved 25 percent stock dividend and 5 percent cash dividend for the year 2011.

Habibur Rahman, Vice-Chairman and Moniruddin Ahmed, Sk. Wahidur Rahman, Syed Moazzem Hussain, M. Faizur Rahman, Ahmed Shafi Choudhury, Suraiya Rahman, Fahim Ahmed Faruk Chowdhury and Mustafa Shahriar Ahmed attended the meetings.

Muhammed Kabiruzzaman Yaqub, alternate director, Khurshid-Ul-Alam, independent director, Helal Ahmed Chowdhury, managing director, MA Halim Chowdhury, additional managing director, Safiul Alam Khan Chowdhury, deputy managing director, Sayeed Ahmed FCA, CFO and general manager and Md. Sayeed Sikder, company secretary and general manager were also present.

A good number of shareholders participated at the discussion and expressed their satisfaction over the performance of the bank. They also suggested measures for further improvement of the bank.

News: Daily Sun/ Bangladesh/ 24-April-2012

Mutual Trust Bank Limited (MTB) opened two ATM booths at Uttara in the city.

SC Ghosh, Managing Director of Associated Builders Limited formally inaugurated the ATM booths at ABC Heritage Building recently, said a press release.

Rashed A. Chowdhury, MTB’s Vice Chairman and Director of Associated Builders Corporation Limited and Anis A. Khan, MTB’s Managing Director attended the function.

Akhter M Chaudhury, Chairman of Nuvista Pharma Limited, YU Lal Udagedara, Senior Vice President and Roger Rene Hubert, Vice President of Li&Fung (BD) Ltd, Abdul Khaleque, Finance Director, Berger Paints, were present.

News: Daily Sun/ Bangladesh/ 24-April-2012

State-run commercial banks are running with 11.27 percent default loans, double the industry average, although they were corporatised about five years ago to make a turnaround, the central bank said yesterday.

Sonali Bank, the country's largest bank, has the highest percentage of non-performing loans at 17.89 percent or Tk 5,705 crore.

Janata Bank has 10.7 percent bad loans compared to the 6.12 percent industry average.

“The amount of default loans at the state banks is still high despite being corporatised,” said Bangladesh Bank Governor Atiur Rahman.

His comments came at a meeting with the chief executives of Sonali, Janata, Agrani and Rupali banks at the BB headquarters in Dhaka.

The four banks sign memorandum of understanding (MoU) every year with the central bank for developing banking operations including operation costs, availability of capital, realisation of default loans, reduction of loss incurring branches and risk management.

The BB also sets some targets for the banks through the agreement and reviews their achievements in every three months.

Rahman said both the amount and the rate of non-performing loans of all the state banks went down in the last quarter of 2011 compared to the previous quarter.

The bad loan recovery rate is also not satisfactory with the three banks apart from Janata.

Last year, Sonali Bank could recover only 14.82 percent of the target from its top 20 loan-defaulters. Agrani Bank could retrieve 57.03 percent and Rupali Bank only 0.04 percent of the targeted bad loans.

Janata Bank fared well, recovering 91.99 percent of the target.

“The banks have to play more effective roles in recovering the default loans,” said Rahman. “The recovery cell of the banks has to be made more effective in realising the bad loans.”

He said the state banks, however, have been able to maintain 11.68 percent capital adequacy in compliance with Basel-II regulations.

The banks need to hold at least 10 percent capital adequacy.

The governor asked the banks to prepare and submit a comprehensive capital plan in the next two months, as the central bank is going ahead with implementing Basel-III.

Rahman said the banks' implementation of the core risk management guideline has been at a marginal or fair level in most cases, which has to be improved to a satisfactory level.

He categorically said the central bank would not tolerate any breach of the regulator's prudential regulations.

He also asked the banks to be more cautious about their asset liability management.

News: The Daily Star/ Bangladesh/ 23-April-2012