N Korea behind BB reserve heist

A top official of the US National Security Agency suggested on Tuesday that North Korean computer hackers were behind the $81m heist targeting Bangladesh Bank’s account at the New York Federal Reserve last year. According to a Foreign Policy magazine report, National Security Agency’s Deputy Director Rick Ledgett appeared to say North Korea was the culprit during an exchange at a discussion forum in Washington, DC, suggesting that private sector researchers had linked the Bangladesh Bank heist to the hack on Sony Pictures in 2014, which the US administration attributed to Pyongyang. Hackers attempted to steal $951m from the New York Fed, but only got away with $81m, some of which was later recovered. Computer security experts described the heist as technically sophisticated. Speaking at an Aspen Institute roundtable, Ledgett said: “If that linkage from the Sony actors to the Bangladeshi bank actors is accurate — that means that a nation state is robbing banks. “That’s a big deal.” The moderator of the event, John Carlin, a former Assistant Attorney General of the US Department of Justice, followed up with: “Do you believe that there are nation states now robbing banks?” Ledgett answered: “I do.” On February 4, 2016, hackers attempted to steal $101m from Bangladesh Bank’s account with Federal Reserve Bank in New York which was noticed on February 6. On March 15, 2016 investigation began after a case was filed on the same day the then governor of Bangladesh Bank Atiur Rahman resigned.

Source:
http://epaper.thedailystar.net/index.php?opt=view&page=16&date=2017-03-23
http://www.dhakatribune.com/business/banks/2017/03/23/nsa-north-korea-bangladesh-bank-heist/
http://www.newagebd.net/article/11838/us-may-accuse-north-korea-in-bangladesh-cyber-heist-wsj
http://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/2017/03/23/65077/’N-Korea-involved-in-BB-heist’

BB plans cash incentives for remitters

Bangladesh Bank has planned to place a proposal before the government to give cash incentives to non-resident Bangladeshis who send up to $200 in remittance to Bangladesh. The central bank has taken the move to encourage the remitters to send money through legal channel amid the drop in remittance inflow to the country because of rise in hundi, an illegal channel for sending money. BB is now preparing a proposal for the finance ministry for giving the cash incentives to the NRBs who send remittance in legal banking channel. NRBs will get 1 per cent to 2 per cent cash incentives against remittance between $1 and $ 200, said officials. An NRB can get cash incentives twice a month for sending remittance up to $200 each time, according to the draft BB proposal. BB officials said that the government might be given two options, either government would give the incentives or the banks would provide the incentives. In case of government providing the incentives, an NRB sending $200 will get between Tk 160 and Tk 320 as cash incentives if the proposal of giving 1-2 per cent cash incentives is approved. The beneficiary of the remittance here in Bangladesh will get the incentives on behalf of the remitters, explained a BB official.

Source: http://www.newagebd.net/article/11805/bb-plans-cash-incentives-for-remitters

New banks’ default loans growing alarmingly

The defaulted loans in the country’s new generation banks increased alarmingly as they have disbursed significant amount of loans violating rules and regulations, sources at the central bank said on Wednesday. According to data available with Bangladesh Bank (BB), the defaulted loans in the nine banks increased to Tk 274 crore as of December 31, 2016 from Tk 44.44 crore as of December 31, 2015. The nine banks are: Meghna Bank, Midland Bank, Modhumoti Bank, NRB Bank, NRB Commercial Bank, NRB Global Bank, South Bangla Agriculture and Commerce Bank, The Farmers Bank and Union Bank. The central bank provided licences to the nine banks on political consideration despite severe criticisms from different quarters. Most of the directors and chairmen of the nine new banks are directly involved with either the politics of the ruling Awami League or those of its allies. The BB has recently detected huge anomalies in disbursing loans by some of the banks and the classified loans in the banks increased massively as a result of the wrongdoings. The central bank appointed observers to The Farmers Bank and NRB Commercial Bank to save the banks from further corruption. However, authorities of this bank together now came up with a set of ‘irrational’ proposals to the central bank for consideration. “Nine new banks have mounted pressure on BB to withdraw many of the conditions, including expansion of banking in rural areas, under which they were given licences in 2012,” a high official of BB told the New Nation preferring anonymity.

Source: http://www.newagebd.net/article/11824/new-bankss-default-loans-grwoing

Major budgetary, financial systems overhaul underway

A major reform in the public financial system for making government budget management and public accounting more transparent and accountable is now in its final stages. The recast, which accounts for both revenues and expenditures, will ensure public fund control, budget formulation and its effective execution, people familiar with the developments at the finance division told the FE. They said the reform signifies that it will help predict accurate fiscal spaces, which are now assumed on unreliable data, apart from forecasting government spending. The reform measures are expected to yield benefits in assessing government assets and liabilities, which is now hardly possible to estimate under the existing system, introduced 18 years back. Budget preparation under the new system is set to be introduced in next October for its experimental uses for the fiscal year 2018. It will go fully from fiscal year 2019. Styled budget and accounting classification, the new system has already got the the nod from the President of Bangladesh as any change in such-classification issues mandatorily requires his clearance.

Source: http://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/2017/03/23/65071/Major-budgetary,-financial-systems-overhaul-underway

EPZ industries exempted from bank guarantee

The National Board of Revenue has exempted the industries located in public and private export processing zones from providing bank guarantees to the customs houses for import of all sorts of machinery and spare parts. Customs wing of the revenue board on March 14 issued a statutory regulatory order saying that entrepreneurs will be exempted from paying any types of duties and taxes, including customs duty, supplementary duty, regulatory duty and value-added tax, on import of machinery and spare parts for industries established in the EPZs. Officials of the revenue board said that since the beginning of establishment of EPZs in the country in 1984 there had been no duties and taxes on import of the items till fiscal year 2014-2015, when NBR mistakenly left out the EPZs from the benefit in the budget. NBR then issued an interim order allowing the EPZ investors to import the products by providing bank guarantee against the duty at the rate of 1 per cent applicable for general importers. Now, investors need not submit any bank guarantee for the release of imported machinery and spare parts from the port, a high official of NBR told New Age on Wednesday. The decision will reduce the cost of investment of entrepreneurs as a huge amount of working capital would not stuck in the form of bank guarantee with the customs authorities, he said.

Source:
http://www.newagebd.net/article/11806/epz-industries-exempted-from-bank-guarantee
http://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/2017/03/23/65068/EPZ-enterprises-now-enjoy-free-import

Dhaka stocks hit 4-year high

The benchmark index of the Dhaka Stock Exchange rose to its highest level yesterday since the introduction of the index in January 2013. DSEX, which replaced the DGEN more than four years ago, advanced 11.45 points or 0.2 percent to touch the new high of 5,736.3 points. “Market participation remained encouraging,” IDLC Investments said in its analysis. Banks dominated the turnover chart for the eighth consecutive session, capturing 32.5 percent of yesterday’s total trade value. Of the top 20 shares in terms of transaction value, nine were from the banking sector. The daily turnover, another important indicator of the market, rose 2.2 percent to Tk 1,290.38 crore, with 43.39 crore shares and mutual fund units changing hands on the DSE. Of the traded issues, 141 advanced, 139 declined and 49 closed unchanged on the premier bourse. Beximco dominated the turnover chart with 1.3 lakh shares worth Tk 46.51 crore changing hands, followed by AB Bank, City Bank, Islami Bank and One Bank. Among the major sectors, non-banking financial institutions gained the most, 1.88 percent, followed by mutual funds 1.08 percent, life insurance 1.02 percent, banks 0.53 percent, pharmaceuticals 0.31 percent and textiles 0.31 percent. Conversely, food and allied sector took the biggest hit, declining 1.46 percent, followed by cement 0.76 percent and fuel and power 0.23 percent.

Source :
http://www.thedailystar.net/business/dhaka-stocks-hit-4-year-high-1379872
http://www.newagebd.net/article/11809/stocks-rise-for-2nd-day-as-bank-nbfi-cheer-continues