Ahmed Shafi Choudhury, Director and Chairman of Audit Committee of Pubali Bank board, Helal Ahmed Chowdhury, Managing Director of the Bank, seen at a function in Rajshahi recently.

A day-long ‘Managers’ Conference-2012’ of Pubali Bank Limited was held in Rajshahi recently.

Ahmed Shafi Choudh- ury, Director and Chairman of Audit Committee of the board of the Bank was present at the conference as chief guest while Helal Ahmed Chowdhury, Managing Director of the Bank was special guest, said a press release.

DGM Sayed Saiful Islam, Regional Manager of Rajshahi presided over the conference. Chief Technical Officer and GM of Pubali Bank Ltd Mohammad Ali, and managers of Rajshahi Region of the Bank were present.

The Daily Sun/Bangladesh/ 9th April 2012

Sirajul Haque Miah has recently been promoted as the deputy managing director of Exim Bank, the Bank said in a statement yesterday.

Prior to the promotion, he was the senior executive vice president and head of investment division for readymade garments of the Bank.

He started his banking career with Janata Bank in 1977 and later joined National Bank in 1983.

The Daily Star/Bangladesh/ 9th April 2012

Bangladesh Bank (BB) Governor Dr Atiur Rahman on Saturday called upon the banks, financial institutions and business organisations to come forward to help conserve the wildlife, reports UNB.

He made the call while addressing a programme organised by Wildlife Conservation Foundation at Lauachhara Forest in Srimongal Upazila under Moulvibazar district in the morning.

Atiur, who released some wild animals in the forest at the programme, called upon the relevant authorities for taking steps to save the biodiversity and conserving historic establishments.

Managing Director of National Bank Limited (NBL) Neaz Ahmed assured the central bank of providing support to that end.

Later, the central bank governor attended a function organised by the NBL for disbursement of loan among Monipuri women entrepreneurs of Sylhet and Moulvibazar.

The governor disbursed Tk 4.8 million loans among 116 women entrepreneurs on behalf of the bank. "The creative women entrepreneurs of the Monipuri community will specially be benefited with this loan," Atiur said.

He said the central bank has so far provided about Tk 3.51 billion among 4,924 women entrepreneurs under its re-financing scheme.

Some 16,696 women entrepreneurs had been provided with Tk 20.84 billion loans in 2011, Atiur said adding that the amount was Tk 18.05 billion in 2010.

He also said the SME loan disbursement process has got a momentum following the steps taken by the central bank.

The governor mentioned that though the number of women entrepreneurs is limited, they are neglected, particularly when it comes to having access to loan.

Financial Express/Bangladesh/ 8th April 2012

Bangladesh Bank (BB) may give approval to launch five to seven new banks in the private sector Sunday. According to BB sources, the board of governors of the central bank is set to give nod to launch five to seven new banks proposed by the private entrepreneurs at its meeting on Sunday (today).

The board of governors of the central bank will meet this afternoon at the BB’s headquarters with its governor Dr Atiur Rahman in the chair.

Sources said, the central bank board might consider maximum six proposals out of 16 short-listed applications for setting up new private banks at the meeting in the face of tremendous pressure from the government high-ups.

Preferring anonymity, a senior BB official told this correspondent that of the short-listed 16 proposals, five banks remain at the top of the list which was prepared by scrutiny committee of the central bank for consideration.

The banks are: Union Bank Ltd, Modhumati Bank Ltd,
The Farmers’ Bank Ltd, South Bangla Agriculture and Commerce Bank and Midland Bank Ltd.

The promoters of these banks are former president HM Ershad, Fazle Noor Taposh, MP and Dr Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir, MP, SM Amjad Hossain and Moniruzzaman Khan Khandker.

The BB official said, the government high-ups had also been persuading the central bank to approve proposed banks, namely Chartered Bank

Ltd, Meghna Bank Ltd, Kotak Bangla Bank Ltd, People’s Islami Bank Ltd and Federal Bank Ltd.
He said several board members are against so many new
banks as, according to him, the present economic situation does not permit it.

He also argued that financial position of the existing banks was not good enough and most of them were facing various problems to run their business.

The official observed that the BB is bound to give its nod to issue licenses to launch new banks, as it was the government’s political agenda. Earlier on Wednesday, the BB governing body in its 329th meeting approved three new banks sponsored by non-resident Bangladeshis (NRBs).

The meeting that was adjourned till 1:30pm Sunday, however, did not give approval to new private banks.
The adjourned meeting would discuss all the 16 short-listed proposals for launching new banks and some of them may finally get nod of the board of governors of the central bank.

The BB, the country’s apex bank, sought applications for setting up new banks from the private promoters in September last year to fulfil the government agenda.

The central bank received 37 applications from the aspirants of the new banks till November 30 last year, last date of filing application.

For this reason, he apprehended, some board members of BB may not attend today’s meeting as they are not interested to involve with the process of approving new banks. The BB official also mentioned that two board members remained absent on the Wednesday’s meeting in the same ground.

Presently, a total of 47 public, private and foreign banks are operating in the country.
Meanwhile, experts have already expressed their concerns over BB’s move to give nod to float too many new banks under pressure from thegovernment.

They said the decision of setting up new private banks in the present economic context of the country would be unwise because business of banks’ has already been saturated in the country.

The Independent/Bangladesh/ 8th April 2012

Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) play a vital role in the economy in terms of employment and income generation, and development of local market and supply chains. But lack of access to external finance is hindering development of these enterprises.

Speakers at a seminar on “SME Financing” expressed the view, highlighting the urgency for identifying the problems faced by small enterprises in obtaining loans from financial institutions.

They also urged authorities concerned to make the procedures easier and remove the unnecessary lengthy procedures while allocating loans.

The discussants also found high interest rates, collateral requirements and lack of skills and attitudes of bankers as the most significant problems that the SMEs face while availing loans from the formal financial institutions.

Bangladesh Bank Deputy governor Md. Abul Quasem, who attended the programme as the chief guest, also echoed a similar tone saying that small enterprises in manufacturing sector are getting less credit as compared to service and trading sectors.

He also stressed the need for clearly defining the sector so that big and large enterprises under the coverage of SMEs could not avail the financial access. “We have already identified some cluster areas in Jessore and Jamalpur region which demand SME supports…,” he said adding that the central bank is contemplating to help handloom weavers at Olipur in Kurigram and Jamdani workers at Rupganj in Narayanganj flourishing these special enterprises.

The deputy governor, also the chairman of BIBM executive committee, urged the organisers to pinpoint the problems and identify proper solutions which he said will be incorporated in bank policies.

Organised by Bangladesh Institute of Bank Management (BIBM), the seminar was also addressed among others by SME foundation Managing Director Syed Rezwanul Kabir, BIBM director general Dr. Toufic Ahmed Choudhury, international consultant Leif Andersen, BIBM director Dr. Prashanta Kumar Banerjee and Prime Finance and Investment Managing Director Asad Khan.

Prof Ashraf Al Mamun and BIBM lecturer Md. Mosharref Hossain  jointly presented a key note paper on “SME Financig: Demand side problems and supply side responses” while BIBM Lecturer ANK Mizan presented another key note paper on SME Credit Risk Model”.

The key note presenters in their papers have tried to describe in details the nature of SME business in Bangladesh, their nature, structures, contributions, financing, problems and prospects, risk identification, assessment and management.

The speakers said areas, such as, Rangpur, Dinajpur and Saidpur still remained unbanked and unattended.
“Availability of required working capital at appropriate time is another significant problem for most of the small businesses,” said a participant.

Most of the small businesses are family based and lack of appropriate financing for their startup and maintaining the operations are still challenging.

Collateral is a tool for securing the loan and many of the entrepreneurs do not have it, SME Managing Director Syed Rezwanul Kabir said.

The Independent/Bangladesh/ 8th April 2012