BB, NY Fed, SWIFT vow again to work together to recover stolen fund

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Bangladesh Bank and SWIFT have promised again to work together to recover the entire stolen money that the country’s central bank lost in a reserve heist on February 4, 2017.The three parties held a meeting on May 21 in New York to discuss how to recover the rest amount of stolen $81 million from the perpetrators, according to a joint statement released on Monday by them (three parties).The statement, published on the New York Fed’s website, said the participants of the meeting reviewed the steps that were earlier taken in line with the previous meetings’ decision of the three parties. The three parties also discussed the new measures to remediate the event, and progress towards rebuilding the SWIFT-related infrastructure in the BB to help ensure that its correspondent banking operations function in a highly secure manner. The participants remain committed to working together to recover the entire proceeds of the crime, bring the perpetrators to justice in cooperation with law enforcement agencies. The three parties would provide support to multilateral international efforts to further protect the global financial system from these types of attacks in the future, according to the statement. A central bank official told New Age on Monday that BB deputy governor Abu Hena Mohd Razee Hassan led the four-member Bangladesh team. A number of senior officials led by an executive vice president of New York Fed participated in the meeting while the representatives of SWIFT participated the event through a video conference.

Source: http://www.newagebd.net/article/19023/bb-ny-fed-swift-vow-again-to-work-together-to-recover-stolen-fund

Banks weighed down by bad loans, lack of quality manpower

Rising non-performing loans (NPL) and the dearth of quality personnel are the major challenges facing the banking sector, said a top banker. The number of banks in the country is more or less proportionate to the size of the economy, Syed Mahbubur Rahman, managing director and chief executive officer of Dhaka Bank, told The Daily Star in an interview on Monday.“But the quality manpower size did not grow.”Educational institutions and commercial institutions should work in tandem to develop quality manpower by giving students practical knowledge, he said. “Such practice is rare in Bangladesh.”As a result, students cannot perform well in a professional setting once they graduate, even with high scores. The sector is suffering severely for shortage of experienced people in the mid- and top-level positions, he said. Rahman, who has been in this line of work for three decades now, elaborated on the overall business of the banking sector. Expressing concern about the rising default loans, he said the banks’ tendency to reschedule and restructure loans to show inflated profits ultimately cost them. The loans eventually become default, raising the industry’s NPL ratio. Bangladesh Bank data shows, classified loans to total outstanding of the banking sector reached 10.53 percent at the end of March this year, up from 9.23 percent a quarter ago.“Loan rescheduling is necessary but recovery will have to be good,” said Rahman, who joined Dhaka Bank in November 2015.

Source:
http://www.thedailystar.net/business/banks-weighed-down-bad-loans-lack-quality-manpower-1428376
http://print.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/2017/07/05/176916

Bank Asia re-elects chairman

A Rouf Chowdhury has been re-elected as the chairman of Bank Asia. The election took place at a board meeting of the bank on Monday, the bank said in a statement yesterday. Chowdhury, the main promoter of Bank Asia, is also the chairman of Rangs Group and Sea Resources Group. He is also a director of The Daily Star, an English daily of the country. He was the president of Bangladesh Basket Ball Association for four years. He has also been a member of the executive committee for Kurmitola Golf Club for over 20 years. Chowdhury is a graduate in business management from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA.

Source: http://www.thedailystar.net/business/bank-asia-re-elects-chairman-1428370

NRB Global Bank Limited recently signed an agreement with Hotel Royal

NRB Global Bank Limited recently signed an agreement with Hotel Royal Tulip at the head office of the bank. Mohammad Shamsul Islam, deputy managing director of NRB Global Bank Limited, and Syed Yameenul Huq, director of Sales and Marketing of the hotel, signed the agreement on behalf of their respective organisations.

Source: http://print.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/2017/07/05/176932

Al-Arafah signs bill collection deal with BREB

Al-Arafah Islami Bank Limited and Bangladesh Rural Electrification Board (BREB) have signed an agent banking outlet bill collection agreement to collect electricity bills in agent banking outlets of the bank, said a statement. The signing ceremony was arranged in the Head Office of BREB. Md. Hossain Patowary, Director (Finance) of REB and Abed Ahmed Khan, Executive Vice President and Head of Agent Banking division of the Bank signed the agreement on behalf of their respective organisations. Among others Md. Nazmul Haque, Controller (Finance & Accounts), Md. Abul Kalam Azad, Deputy Director (Finance) and Md. Sajedul Islam, Assistant Director (Finance) for REB and Md. Moynal Hossain, Assistant Vice President, Md. Shakhaowat Hossain, FAVP and Md. Ishtiak Hasan, FAVP of the Bank were also present on the occasion.

Source: http://print.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/2017/07/05/176921

National Housing re-elects Latifur as chairman

Mr. Latifur Rahman has been re-elected as Chairman of National Housing Finance And Investments Limited at its 187th meeting of the board held recently for 2 years, said a statement. Rahman, an eminent businessman in the country, is the chairman and CEO of Transcom Group whose business includes beverage, electrical & electronics products, pharmaceuticals, fast food, snacks and breakfast cereals, print media and tea including, Transcom beverages, Transcom electronics, Eskayef Bangladesh, Transcom foods, Transcom distribution company, Transcom consumer product, Mediastar, Mediaworld and tea holdings, bank, leasing & insurance etc. He is sponsor Director of National Housing Finance. Rahman is member of the executive board of ICC-Paris; vice president of ICC-Bangladesh; member, governing body of BRAC, word’s largest NGO; member, Bangladesh Better Business Forum; advisory committee on WTO.

Source: http://print.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/2017/07/05/176914

NSC sales in 11 months 240% higher than Fiscal Year 2017 target

The sale of National Savings Certificates (NSC) in the first 11 months of just-concluded Fiscal Year 2016-17 crossed the target by around 240%.According to the latest data of National Savings Department (NSD) revealed on Tuesday, from July to May of the outgoing fiscal year the government had sold savings certificates amounting to Tk46,967 crore while the target set for the fiscal year was Tk19,610 crore. In May of FY’17, the sale of savings certificates amounted to Tk4,869, a Tk1,264 crore increase, compared to the same period a year ago that sold the savings instruments worth Tk3,605 crore. In the month of May alone, the government sold NSC of Tk4,86 crore while the sales in the month of June are expected to be doubled, NSD officials apprehended. In June, a large number of people lined in front of the central bank, other commercial banks, Post Office and NSD centre to buy savings certificates after Finance Minister AMA Muhith hinted at decreasing the interest rate from the current fiscal year. Talking to the Dhaka Tribune, economists have expressed concern over the increased sales of NSC. They slammed the government for depending on NSC sale rather than borrowing from other banks. Former chief economist of Bangladesh Bank Biru Paksha Paul told the Dhaka Tribune, “If you look at the bank loan interest rate, it is almost half the amount of the savings certificates.”Now the government can take short term loan from banks at 2.86% interest rate and long-term loan at less than 7% interest rate, but it is paying between 11.04% and 11.76% interest rate on the sale of savings certificates. The government financing to the NSC sales is the most expensive financing in the Indian sub-continent, he said.

Source: http://www.dhakatribune.com/business/economy/2017/07/05/nsc-sales-11-months-240-higher-fiscal-year-2017-target/