Sayeed H. Chowdhury has been elected Chairman of ONE Bank Limited for one-year term during a meeting of its Board of Directors recently.

Asoke Das Gupta was also elected as Vice Chairman of the Bank at the meeting, said a press release.

Sayeed H. Chowdhury, who obtained his BSc (Honours) degree in Economics from the UK, is the founder chairman and Chief Executive Officer of HRC Group.

He is a member of the British Institute of Management.

Chowdhury is also the chairman of Media New Age Ltd. and Information Services Network Ltd. He is the president of Bangladesh Ocean Going Shipowners’ Association (BOGSOA) and Chairman of the Editorial Board of the National Bengali daily ‘Jaijai Din’.

The Daily Sun/Bangladesh/ 10th April 2012

Coming up with a detailed explanation of allowing new banks, Bangladesh Bank (BB) yesterday said entry of the new banks would heighten the quality of financial services by increasing competition in the banking sector.

Explaining the economic context and rationale behind issuing new bank licences, the central bank said the economy has grown and the banking system has become more competitive when there are a large number of under-banked people in Bangladesh.

The BB said while the economy has grown and the banking system has become more competitive, 45 per cent of the population still remain unbanked.

The population per branch (21,065) and the ratio of loan accounts per 1,000 adults (42) suggests that the outreach of the formal financial sector is lower than in India (14,485 and 124 respectively) and Pakistan (20,340 population per branch and 47 loan accounts per 1,000).

It said the capital infusion by these new banks would augment the banking system’s capacity to meet the credit needs of the expanding corporate sector. Currently, because of limitations on large exposures, large corporations must approach many banks simultaneously with their credit needs, which then have to be stitched together in syndicate or participation loans.

“The entrance of the new banks will add to the aggregate capital base of these existing syndications, allowing for larger loans to be granted for productive investment and job-creation,” the central bank said.

The Daily Sun/Bangladesh/ 10th April 2012

The introduction of e-tender at Bangladesh Bank enables bidders to take part in the bidding freely in a process that eliminated domination of muscle power and shortened the procurement cycle.

Since its introduction in May 2010, the banking regulator gave 350 contracts out of 400 to winning bidders for procurement of goods through e-tender, a central bank official said.

"With this online system, the entire tender process for procurement of goods and services starting from creation of a purchase requisition through to the award of contract is being done in a transparent and fair manner," said Nazneen Sultana, deputy governor of Bangladesh Bank.

She said e-tender minimises the use of paper, hassles in communication and administration and labour-intensive tasks of receipt, recording and distribution.

In fact, the e-tender tool transforms a rigid, process-driven environment into a flexible, result-driven landscape, Sultana said.

Some 100 tenders are waiting for evaluation and contracts are expected to be awarded soon, said Mohammed Ishaque Miah, senior systems analyst.

The BB developed the electronic tender system software with own expertise and resources for tender call, collection and evaluation to quicken its procurement process.

Now, the software became a model in the country's bidding process that often triggered unbridled corruption and snatching of tender box in the manual system, he added.

Ishaque said the Bridge Division, Rupali Bank, Security Printing Press and some other organisations will introduce e-bidding with the software.

The user-friendly software has been developed considering the country's socio-economic and literacy condition, said Kazi Nasir Ahmed, another IT expert of BB.

Users will have to sign up for the e-tender system with valid email addresses. A user can log into the system with an ID and password. Unregistered users who want to participate in the bidding have to click the link 'Register Now' of the tender site.

The Daily Star/Bangladesh/ 10th April 2012

A major global banking group said Monday that excessive spending cuts across the euro area are dragging the region's economy down and called for more spending by countries like Germany.

The Institute of International Finance, which played a central role in the restructuring of Greece's debt, also assailed a eurozone firewall -- designed to stop market contagion -- as still inadequate and called for it to be expanded as soon as possible.

"The emphasis so far on fiscal austerity, while to a degree necessary for the countries facing market funding difficulties, is excessive when carried out across the board," IIF chief Charles Dallara said in a letter addressed to the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

The tighter spending by eurozone governments "has already contributed to a steep contraction in domestic demand in the euro area as a whole," Dallara said.

"It is important to move beyond just fiscal discipline, shift the policy focus from nominal to structural budget balances," he said.

Instead, Dallara said, government fiscal policies should be differentiated between weaker eurozone members and those with surpluses and fiscal flexibility "so as to avoid the risk of an austerity overload."

Dallara's letter was addressed to the International Monetary and Financial Committee and the Development Committee of the IMF and World Bank ahead of their yearly Spring Meetings on April 20-22.

The IMF has pushed strongly for tough austerity programs in the weakest euro area countries like Greece and Spain, but has also warned that choking off spending across the eurozone could choke off growth.

The IIF, which represents some 450 major financial institutions worldwide, assailed the eurozone's fiscal compact, which sets tough budget standards for all governments, as "somewhat narrowly focused on promoting the implementation of rather inflexible fiscal consolidation objectives."

It also called the agreement by European finance ministers late last month on a 800 billion euro (US$1 trillion) emergency fund to protect against market panic as "disappointing", noting that 300 billion euros of it was already committed.

"The euro area needs to increase in the period immediately ahead the resources of its firewall and enhance the flexibility and timeliness of the deployment of these resources to make them effective in times of crises," Dallara said.

The Daily Star/Bangladesh/ 10th April 2012

Country's non-banking financial institutions (NBFIs) have put a thrust on streamlining the 'funding source' to cope with the rising competition in the deposit mobilization drive of the commercial banks and FIs.

"We have to activate the bond market and some of the banks and FIs have already opted for issuing convertible bonds and right shares to cope with the ongoing 'tough situation' in view of the government's increased bank borrowing target," chairman of Bangladesh Leasing and Finance Companies Association (BLFCA) Asad Khan told The FE in an interview recently.

The government has increased its bank borrowing target by more than 47 per cent to Tk 279 billion to finance the budget deficit of the current fiscal year ending June.

Market operators expressed their deep concern over the increased bank borrowing target saying that it might hit the liquidity position of commercial banks, particularly the primary dealers (PDs), besides affecting investment in the private sector.

Under the revised target, the government is set to borrow Tk 279 billion from the country's banking system against the original budgetary target of Tk 189.57 billion.

The PDs earlier urged the government to review the debt management strategy, particularly that concerning the ratio of T-bills and bonds, to minimise their fund mismatch.

The government borrowing from banking system increased by more than three times until March 25 this year compared to the corresponding period of the last year.

The government's net borrowing from banking system shot up to Tk 169.67 billion during the period under review as against Tk 48.92 billion in the same period the previous year, according to Bangladesh Bank statistics.

During the period, the government borrowed Tk 113.77 billion from the scheduled banks through issuing T-bills and bonds during the period, while Tk 55.90 billion was borrowed from the central bank to finance the budget deficit.

Market players, however, expressed their worries over the increased bank borrowing target of the government, saying that it might have impact on the liquidity position of the country's commercial banks, particularly the PDs.

The BLFCA chairman has also reiterated the demand to allow them keep the 'government fund' in their deposit basket.

"We urgently need the support from the government to keep our business alive as our fund source from commercial banks remains almost restricted in recent years," Mr Asad Khan said.

He said government should consider their demand in view of the NBFIs' growing contribution in the country's industrialisation.

Financial Express/Bangladesh/ 9th April 2012