The 39th ATM Booth of Mercantile Bank Limited started its operation at Swadesh Tower, 41/6 Purana Paltan in the city recently. A K M Shahidul Haque, Managing Director and CEO of the Bank inaugurated the booth.Deputy Managing Director of the Bank Choudhury Moshtaq Ahmed was also present on the occasion.

Financial Express/Bangladesh/ 18th April 2012

The High Court Tuesday rejected a writ petition filed by Destiny Multipurpose Cooperative Society Ltd challenging a Bangladesh Bank (BB) report on illegal banking of the company, reports UNB.

An HC bench, comprising Justice Farid Ahmed and Justice Sheikh Hassan Arif, passed the order.

Md Rafiqul Amin, chairman of the cooperative society and Destiny 2000 Ltd, filed the writ petition with the High Court on April 8 seeking its stay order on the central bank report and a rule upon the government and the BB to explain the legality of the report.

The central bank's report revealed that Destiny Multipurpose Cooperative Society Ltd has been involved in illegal banking.

In his petition, the Destiny Group chairman stated that the BB's report was faulty and illegal as the BB did not follow due procedures while inspecting the company.

He also said the news published in different newspapers against the company caused huge damage to it.

Financial Express/Bangladesh/ 18th April 2012

TOKYO: Japan said on Tuesday it will provide $60 billion in loans to the International Monetary Fund, becoming the first non-European nation to commit money to boost the fund’s financial firepower to contain the euro zone debt crisis.

Finance Minister Jun Azumi said Japan hoped Tokyo’s contribution, which will be formally announced at a Group of 20 financial leaders’ meeting later this week, will encourage other countries to follow suit.

Indeed, IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde was quoted as saying she hoped to secure government agreements this week to raise the IMF’s funds by more than $400 billion, about two-thirds of the amount the Fund had said in January it would need.

“I really hope this week we’ll reach the critical mass of more than $400 billion. We are determined to do all we can,” she was quoted as telling Italy’s main financial newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore, though she also said finally sealing the funds might take a bit longer.

Japan’s announcement comes ahead of the IMF and World Bank Spring Meeting and a G20 finance leaders’ gathering in Washington, which run from Friday to Sunday.

“Following a series of euro zone’s policy responses, it is important to strengthen IMF funding and pave the way for ensuring an end to the crisis not only for the euro zone but also for Japan and Asian countries,” Azumi told a regular news conference after a cabinet meeting.

“I am confident that many other countries will pledge contributions to the IMF,” he said.

The IMF, which acts as a lender of last resort for governments, said in January it would need $600 billion in new resources to help “innocent bystanders” who might be affected by economic and financial spillovers from Europe.

The Daily Sun/Bangladesh/ 18th April 2012

WASHINGTON: The World Bank on Monday chose Korean-born American health expert Jim Yong Kim as its new president, maintaining Washington's grip on the job and leaving developing countries frustrated with the selection process.

Kim, a physician and anthropologist who makes for a somewhat unorthodox choice to head the global anti-poverty lender, won the job over Nigeria's widely respected finance minister, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, with the support of Washington's allies in Western Europe, Japan and Canada - as well as some emerging economies.

It was the first time in the World Bank's history that the United States' hold on the job was challenged.

The decision by the World Bank's 25-member board was not unanimous, with emerging economies splitting their support. Brazil and South Africa backed Okonjo-Iweala, while three sources said China and India supported Kim.

Kim, 52, who is president of Dartmouth College, will assume his new post on July 1 after Robert Zoellick steps down as head of the World Bank.

"I will seek a new alignment of the World Bank Group with a rapidly changing world," Kim said in a statement.

The Daily Sun/Bangladesh/ 18th April 2012

Bangladesh Bank is scheduled to complete today the process of distributing letters of intent (LOIs) to the newly approved six conventional private banks and three specialised banks for non-resident Bangladeshis.

BB sources said the central has formulated the LOIs putting 30 conditions to be fulfilled by the entrepreneurs to receive an original lice-nce within the next six months to start operation of the new banks.

Chairman of one of the banks which is an NRB bank said on Tuesday that he had already received the LOI to take the next steps to secure the licence.

If the authorities of a new bank fail to receive original licence by meeting all the 30 conditions, the licence will be cancelled, said BB deputy governor SK Sur Chowdhury.

In default, he said, the bank authorities will have to apply to the central bank seeking extension of time for beginning operations. The chairman or board members of the bank/s may be changed at that time, Sur Chowdhury added.

Notwithstanding controversies surrounding permission for more new banks, the central bank, at its board meeting on 8 April, approved six commercial banks after endorsing three Non-Resident Bangladeshi (NRB) banks on 4 April.

The banks are Awami League leader and former state minister Muhiuddin Khan Alamgir’s Farmers’ Bank, Awami League lawmaker Barrister Fazle Noor Tapash’s Modhumati Bank, Meghna Bank of HN Ashikur Rahman and Nasrul Hamid MP, Jatiya Party Chairman HM Ershad’s Union Bank, former managing director of Karmasangsthan Bank M Manirujjaman Khondoker’s Midland Bank and Professor Abdul Mannan Chowdhury’s South Bangla Agriculture and Commerce Bank.

The sponsors of the NRB banks that got BB nod are US expatriates Farashat Ali and Nizam Chowdhury, and UK expatriate Iqbal Ahmed.

The new banks will be required to open branches at a ratio of 1:1 in rural and urban areas while they will have to distribute 5 percent of total credit into agriculture sector and spend 10 percent of net profit in activities relating to corporate social responsibility (CSR).

Each managing board should be comprised of a maximum of 13 members.

The entrepreneurs will not be allowed to hand over shares within three years of functioning and without prior permission of the central bank.

The Daily Sun/Bangladesh/ 18th April 2012