BB squeezes pvt sector credit growth target in MPS

Bangladesh Bank has lowered private sector credit growth target to 16.20 per cent, which has maintained an upward trend in recent months, in the monetary policy statement for July-December of this year with a view to decreasing the money supply in the market While unveiling the MPS on Wednesday, the central bank estimated that the country would achieve 7.40 per cent GDP (gross domestic product) growth in FY 2017-18 while inflation would remain at 5.50 per cent through implementing the credit supply to the private and public sectors.BB governor Fazle Kabir said that the private sector credit growth stood at 16 per cent and the public sector credit growth at a negative of 16.2 per cent in May year-on-year against the target of 16.50 per cent and 12.10 per cent by June 2017.The BB has set the private sector credit target at 16.20 per cent by December 2017 and 16.30 per cent by June 2018.The BB unveiled the latest monetary policy statement at its headquarters in the capital.BB governor Fazle Kabir chaired the unveiling session of the statement while its deputy governors and executive directors were present.Kabir said that credit growth to the public sector decreased significantly in recent months due to a large amount of government borrowing from the national savings tools avoiding the banking sector.Such borrowing from the savings tools usually put a lower impact on inflation than that of borrowing from the banks.

Source:
http://www.newagebd.net/article/20618/bb-squeezes-pvt-sector-credit-growth-target-in-mps
http://www.dhakatribune.com/business/economy/2017/07/27/bb-lowers-private-sector-credit-target/

Investment in nat’l savings tools hits record Tk 52,327cr in FY17

The yearly net investment in the national savings certificates and bonds hit a fresh record of Tk 52,327 crore in the recently concluded fiscal year 2016-17 as there was a huge rush for the tools due to low interest rates for bank deposit products.The previous highest yearly net investment in the saving tools was Tk 33,688.60 crore posted in FY16.Directorate of National Savings and Bangladesh Bank officials said people had been maintaining a huge investment in the last few months as the government earlier hinted at lowering the rate on the tools with a view to reducing the interest rate gap between the NSCs and other rates of deposit products offered by the banks.The net investment also crossed Tk 50,000 crore for the first time in the country’s history in the last fiscal year.The government, however, is yet to take any final decision whether it will cut the rate on the tools, they said.People are now being forced to invest their money in the savings tools as the banks are offering hardly 7 per cent interest rate on their deposit products. The rates offered by the NSCs are between 11.04 per cent and 11.76 per cent, a BB official said.Besides, a section of people including politicians and bureaucrats are also making huge investment to enjoy higher returns from the tools.

Source: http://www.newagebd.net/article/20620/investment-in-natl-savings-tools-hits-record-tk-52327cr-in-fy17

BB stands guard against inflation

The rising inflation is weighing heavily on the central bank’s mind as it unveiled a cautionary monetary policy for the first half of the fiscal year yesterday.The private sector credit growth target has been set at 16.2 percent, down from the preceding six months’ 16.5 percent.For achieving fiscal 2017-18’s budgetary growth target of 7.4 percent, a 16.2 percent private sector credit growth target is enough, said Fazle Kabir, governor of the Bangladesh Bank.“Our main task is to monitor inflation round-the-clock and give all-out support to growth,” he said.In the last quarter of fiscal 2016-17, inflation edged up about 44 basis points from the previous quarter to 5.72 percent.Though the private sector growth target has been lowered slightly, the BB policy rate — the main instrument for countering inflationary risk — has been kept unchanged. With the view to balancing growth and inflationary risks against the backdrop of a subdued global inflation outlook and tightening monetary policy conditions in advanced economies, the BB has decided to keep policy rates unchanged at its current level.The repo rate would continue to be 6.75 percent and the reverse repo rate 4.75 percent.

Source:
http://www.thedailystar.net/business/bb-stands-guard-against-inflation-1439464
http://www.dhakatribune.com/business/economy/2017/07/26/central-bank-sets-inflation-target-5-5-first-half-fy18/

Suspicious transactions detected

Bangladesh Bank has detected several suspicious transactions on the mobile banking platform, especially at late night, which means remittance is being sent home through hundi.“The transactions are made at a certain time in the night and several such transactions took place in one go,” said Abu Hena Mohd. Razee Hassan, deputy governor of Bangladesh Bank, yesterday during the unveiling of the Monetary Policy Statement for the first half of the fiscal year.The BB got report of a good number of suspicious transactions through the mobile banking channels, and investigations also revealed a number of irregularities in the mobile bank accounts, he said.It is now being examined who made the transactions through the accounts; the central bank will take action in this regard soon, he said.Remittance inflow has been sliding in recent times, and to find the reason behind the decline the BB even sent teams to some countries, including the Middle East. One of the reasons for the slump in official remittance figures is the growing tendency among migrant workers to send money through hundi.The money remitted to Bangladesh through hundi is sent from Dhaka to receivers all over the country via mobile banking. The BB detected about 10,000 such accounts through which hundi money is reaching the receivers.The BB is now working on identifying measures that can be taken, including closing down the accounts.

Source: http://www.thedailystar.net/business/suspicious-transactions-detected-1439449

Bank Asia-UNDP partnership to serve 60m people

Partnering with the UNDP, Bank Asia is building a digital banking circuit with various newer products to deliver formal financial services to around 60 million unbanked people across Bangladesh. The major initiative builds on a belief that traditional banking falls short of reaching this multitude with the banks’ institutionally organised networks. “Traditional banking services will not ensure formal financial services to unbanked people, almost half of the population. We are shifting our focus from traditional banking to small-scale banking to penetrate unbanked areas at a lower operational cost,” said President and Managing Director of the bank Md Arfan Ali.In an interview with The Financial Express, he said the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Bank Asia recently signed an agreement to work jointly to facilitate the payment under social-safety nets and enhance financial literacy of people through digital financial services.

Source: http://print.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/2017/07/27/178970

SJIBL, BASIS ink MoU

Shahjalal Islami Bank Ltd. and Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services (BASIS) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) Tuesday at Shahjalal Islami Bank’s Head Office, Gulshan, Dhaka.Under this agreement the members of BASIS will get investment facility for competitive terms from Shahjalal Islami Bank Ltd. On the other hand the clients will be allowed to purchase product from BASIS members and the SME/Corporate clients of the Bank will be able to purchase software on discount from BASIS.

Source: http://print.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/2017/07/27/178974