Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on behalf of National Bank Limited (left) handing over cheques for Tk. 24 lac for 4th year to the families of five army officers held at a simple ceremony at Gono Bhaban in the city recently. The Prime Minister on behalf of NCC Bank also handed over another cheque worth Tk. 4.8 lac as yearly contribution for 4th year to Dr. Rowsan Ara Begum, wife of Lt. Col. Lutfur Rahman.

Financial Express/Bangladesh/ 5th March 2012

The government is set to receive US$200 million as syndicated loan from overseas sources for importing petroleum products, officials said Sunday.

Three foreign commercial banks (FCBs) are mobilising the loan from the global market for the state-run Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) at 5.25 per cent rate of interest.

The banks are Standard Chartered Bank, Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited, generally known as HSBC, and Citibank N.A.

"All official formalities have been completed. The SCBs are scheduled to start disbursing the loan from Tuesday (March 6)," a senior official of the Bangladesh Bank (BB) told the FE.

He also said the hard-term loan committee has already approved the loan proposal to ease pressure on the country's foreign exchange reserve.

"The loan will help keep the foreign exchange market stable to some extent," another BB official said, adding that the loan will be treated as 'revolving facility' initially for a period of one year.

The latest move of the government came against the backdrop of reluctance on the part of the state-owned commercial banks (SCBs) to open letters of credit (LCs) for importing fuel oils by the BPC.

The dues of BPC with five state-run banks stood at more than Tk 170 billion till January 2012.

The BPC's overdues to the banks have gradually been rising in the recent times. As a result, the banks are facing liquidity problem.

Financial Express/Bangladesh/ 5th March 2012

The race to succeed World Bank president Robert Zoellick is heating up with the emergence of the first declared candidate, another American. Renowned economist Jeffrey Sachs, who led the UN committee on the Millennium development goals, threw his hat in the ring Friday in a Washington Post op-ed piece, saying the World Bank needs an expert like himself rather than another politician or Wall Street banker.

Sachs’s declaration came amid signs the United States is eyeing others for the high-profile job.
“The United States signaled that it was looking at the possibility of nominating (Treasury Secretary Timothy) Geithner, (one of his predecessors Larry) Summers, or someone from the private sector like (Pimco chief executive) Mohamed El-Erian,” said a person close to the World Bank, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Those three have remained mum on their interest in heading the global development lender. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also has been widely mentioned in the media as a possibilty. Geithner’s deputy for international affairs, Lael Brainard, has drawn some attention as well.
With the deadline for nominations three weeks away, the competition “is beginning to pick up speed,” the source said.

One thing seems certain, though: despite a chorus of calls from emerging markets and NGOs for a non-American to lead the development lender, in the name of the “new normal” global economy, the United States, as the biggest stakeholder, is expected to decide the winner.
The World Bank has promised the selection process will be “merit-based and transparent” and open to candidates from its 187 member nations.

But in an unwritten pact since the creation of theWorld Bank and the International Monetary Fund nearly seven decades ago, the US has always put an American at the helm of the Bank and Europe has ensconced a European as IMF managing director. But the clamor for an alternative has grown louder.

After Zoellick announced two weeks ago he was stepping down on June 30 at the end of his five-year term, China and Brazil called for a fair, competitive selection process.

Neither has put forth an alternative candidate, at least not yet.Bangladesh prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, has suggested Muhammad Yunus, who won a Nobel Prize for his work in microfinance. On Friday Yunus flatly ruled out taking the job, but the person close to the World Bank suggested that Yunus may still emerge as a candidate.

“But right now it isn’t the intention of the Indian director on the board to propose him.”
An Indian director holds the board seat shared by India and Bangladesh.

The Daily Independent/Bangladesh/ 5th March 2012

An agreement for business process improvement has been signed between City Bank and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Private Limited, says a press release. Under this agreement, PwC will initiate the business process re-engineering process and the functional validation of the Bank’s core banking system through analysis of the current practices of City Bank compared against the global best practices.

Through this project, the process of City Bank will be aligned with the best banking practices seen across the development markets. This will eventually result in greater customer satisfaction and compliance at the same time.

Globally, Pricewaterhouse-Coopers International Limited is currently the largest accounting and consulting firm. PricewaterhouseCoopers International Limited was named a “Leader” in Gratner’s Magic Quadrant for Financial Management Consulting Services Worldwide 2011.
The agreement was signed by K Mahmood Sattar, managing director and chief executive officer of City Bank and Pradip Bhowmick, executive director of PwC.

City Bank additional managing directors--Sohail RK Hussain and Faruq M. Ahmed, deputy managing director and chief operations officer Mashrur Arefin and Sekhar Mukherji, project director for PwC were also present during the signing ceremony.

The Dail Independent/Bangladesh/ 5th March 2012

The first branch managers conference-2012’ of Pubali Bank for Noakhali region was held at Maijdee Court recently.

The conference was arranged for motivating the branch managers so that they render better services to the clients in a bid to increase Bank’s business, said a press release.

M A Halim Chowdhury, Additional Managing Director of the Bank and Habibur Rahman, general manager of credit division were present.

Deputy General Manager Md. Ashraful Alam, Noakhali region presided over the conference.

The managing director in his speech urged all to work hard, look for new business avenues and adopt diversification and to take concerted efforts for achieving the target fixed for the year 2012.

He also stressed on the expansion of foreign remittance business through better customer and modern banking services.

MA Halim Chowdhury also advised the branch managers to keep close vigilance and monitoring so that disbursed loans may not become overdue or classified.

He underscored the need for increasing utilisation of the modern Information Technology for qualitative improvement in the overall customer services in the highly competitive Banking sector.

The Daily Sun/Bangladesh/ 5th March 2012