Investment in NSCs soar to Tk 17,315cr in Jul-Oct

Investment in national savings tools posted Tk 17,315 crore in July-October, growing from Tk 15,916 crore during the same period of the last year, as people continued to invest heavily in the tools because of low bank rates. According to the latest Directorate of National Savings data, clients invested another Tk 4,620 crore in national savings certificates and bonds in October after relatively slow investment of Tk 3,665 crore in September. The total investment in NSCs was Tk 4,266 crore in October 2016. Officials of DNS and Bangladesh Bank said that higher interest rate of NSCs compared with the bank rates and sluggish business environment in the country continued to encourage clients to invest in NSCs. They said that with the current trend investment in the NSCs would make fresh record in the current fiscal year of 2017-2018, after the investment had hit record Tk 52,327 crore in FY2016-2017. Banks’ interest rate on deposits has been maintaining a downward trend for the last few months, with some banks offering as low as 4 per cent while clients get between 10 and 11 per cent interest on NSCs.

Source: http://www.newagebd.net/article/29498/investment-in-nscs-soar-to-tk-17315cr-in-jul-oct

Private credit growth continues ascent

Private sector credit growth is continuing with its ascent, helped in part by the higher import of food grains and capital machinery. In October, private sector credit growth stood at 18.63 percent, which is way higher than the target of 16.2 percent set for the first half of the fiscal year, according to data from the Bangladesh Bank. The last time the credit growth was higher than this was back in March 2012, when it stood at 19.5 percent. “The high credit growth is unusual,” said a senior BB official, adding that banks are repeatedly being advised to be cautious about their lending. In July, private sector credit growth stood at 16.94 percent, exceeding the monetary target of 16.2 percent for the first half of 2017. The growth slowed slightly to 17.8 percent in September from 17.84 percent in August. The increase in credit growth was due to deferred letters of credit payment mostly for food grains and capital machinery, said MA Halim Chowdhury, managing director of Pubali Bank.

Source: http://www.thedailystar.net/business/private-credit-growth-continues-ascent-1498906

Bangladesh Bank sells $30m more to 11 banks

The central bank of Bangladesh has sold US$30 million more to 11 banks directly to minimise the mismatch between demand and supply of foreign exchange in the market. “We’ve provided the foreign exchange support to the banks on Thursday to meet the demand for the greenback in the market,” a senior official of the Bangladesh Bank (BB) told the BBN in Dhaka.

Source: https://businessnews-bd.net/bangladesh-bank-sells-30m/

World Bank to help introduce direct cash delivery by banks

The World Bank (WB) would assist in rebuilding the system of government cash transfers under the social-safety-net programme (SSNP), introducing direct delivery by banks to recipients to end irregularities. Government officials said Wednesday the Washington-based development financier will help establish transparent beneficiary-selection process and modernise the management of the cash-transfer system. Under the WB support, the government would hand over cash to the beneficiaries directly through the digital payment systems to check any possible misappropriation of the public money, Social Welfare Secretary Md Zillar Rahman told the FE. An Economic Relations Division (ERD) official said the World Bank would provide US$300 million for facilitating the modernisation and financing of government’s cash-transfer system. The Department of Social Services under the Ministry of Social Welfare will upgrade the payment system, reinforcing it with the involvement of Election Commission’s National Identity Card (NID) wing, the Office of Birth and Death Registration and Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS), to establish a transparent and modern public cash-transfer system.

Source: http://thefinancialexpress.com.bd/economy/world-bank-to-help-introduce-direct-cash-delivery-by-banks-1512103902

State-owned Commercial Banks saw their profit drop or count loss

Six state-owned commercial banks (SoCBs) saw their combined net profit erode in the last calendar year, largely for their own shortcomings, sources said. Of them, two scam-hit SoCBs — Sonali and BASIC — incurred substantial losses during the year. A recent publication styled ‘financial institutions report 2016-17’, prepared by Financial Institutions Division under the Ministry of Finance (MoF), revealed that The aggregate net profit of the state-owned banks — Sonali, Rupali, Janata, Agrani, BASIC and BDBL — dropped more than 14% to BDT 27.25 billion at the end of December 2016. Of the banks in the public sector, the net profit of two — Sonali and BASIC — in the past year was negative. The four others were in the profit domains, with BDBL profit shrinking more than in 2015. On the other hand, the combined net profit of the private commercial banks rose by nearly 18.7% to BDT 73.11 billion in the year under review. Some former bank chief executives states that the state-owned banks have low loan disbursement in comparison with their deposits, leaving substantial amounts of “idle money” in their vaults..

Source: http://today.thefinancialexpress.com.bd/public/first-page/socbs-see-profit-drop-or-count-loss-1512149937

Foreign firms must get BIDA approval for fund transfer

Bangladesh Bank on Thursday made it mandatory for foreign enterprises to get approval from Bangladesh Investment Development Authority for transferring funds from the country. To this end, the central bank on the day issued a circular aligning the guidelines on Foreign Exchange Transactions-2009 with the Bangladesh Investment Development Authority (BIDA) Act, 2016. Under the existing provision of Foreign Exchange Transections-2009, there was no requirement to get approval from the Bangladesh Bank or the now abolished Board of Investment by the foreign companies for remittance of royalty, technical knowhow or technical assistance and operational service fees. The BB circular issued on Thursday, however, repealed the paragraph 25 and 26 of the chapter 10, Volume-1.
Taking approval from the BIDA was made mandatory for the enterprises for payment of royalty, fees for technical knowledge or technical assistance and franchise fees to foreign persons or institutions in accordance. After receiving applications for remittance of funds from the country along with BIDA’s approval, authorised dealers were asked to ensure whether they were authoriesed to execute the remittance or not, the BB circular said. ADs were also asked to ensure whether the applicable taxes payable on remittable amount were duly paid, it said.

Source: http://www.newagebd.net/article/29500/foreign-firms-must-get-bida-approval-for-fund-transfer

Number growing amid lax BSEC monitoring

Lax monitoring on the part of Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission has paved the way for a surge in rumour-mongering Facebook pages that are being used for manipulating the stock market by spreading various rumours and tips about stock prices and scrips, market operators said. More than 1,000 rumour-mongering Facebook pages with huge number of followers are seen active in this connection and the number would increase sharply if any effective measure is not taken by the regulator, they said. Of them, DSE Investors Club, a Facebook public group, has more than 82,000 members, while FB groups Bangladesh Stock Market Share Business has 40,911, DSE Club 35,000, DSE Profit Club 33,854, DSE Current Data Analysis News 23,163, and IPO Success Group have 20,195 members. They said more and more people were joining these FB groups and seeking advices about profitable investment at the stock market, and the members were advising them with certainty that a particular scrip would go up or down, they said.

Source: http://www.newagebd.net/article/29576/number-growing-amid-lax-bsec-monitoring