Banks should be the only ones setting the interest rates as they offer loans at rates that are based on factors like cost of funds, credit worthiness of a customer and the prevailing market condition, said AKM Shaheed Reza, chairman of Mercantile Bank.

The government’s interest burden is likely to get heavier in the upcoming fiscal year thanks to its excessive reliance on high-cost national savings certificates to fund its expenditures.

The central bank yesterday injected Tk 2,300 crore into the money market to ease liquidity crunch in the banking sector amid the cash withdrawal spree in the lead up to Eid.

Syed Faridul Islam has recently joined United Commercial Bank (UCB) as additional managing director.

Dilwar H Choudhury has recently been elected chairman of the audit committee of the board of directors of Bank Asia.

State banks can keep on expecting to be coddled despite their continued financial irregularities and irresponsible lending practices, with the government looking to inject Tk 1,500 crore in the upcoming fiscal year to help the lenders meet their capital shortfall.

Romo Rouf Chowdhury has recently been elected vice chairman of Bank Asia. The election took place at a meeting of the bank’s board of directors, says a statement. Chowdhury is one of the sponsor shareholders as well as sponsor directors of Bank Asia. He holds directorship of various sister concerns of Rangs Group and Sea Fishers Group.

Mutual Trust Bank has recently become the third Bangladeshi bank to receive the certificate for complying with the payment card industry data security standard (PCI DSS) set by Visa, MasterCard, Discover Financial Services, JCB International and American Express.

The Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU) yesterday instructed mobile financial service (MFS) providers to inform it of suspicious transactions with a view to reining in “digital hundi” ahead of Eid-ul-Fitr.

Eastern Bank Limited (EBL) has reappointed its managing director and CEO, Ali Reza Iftekhar, for three years.

The government has all on a sudden stepped up its borrowing from the banking system from this month as its revenue collection fell short of expectations, sending the cash-strapped banks into a state of panic. Until the end of April, the government did not borrow from banks

The High Court has halted the privilege of loan defaulters to secure further loans by giving a 2 per cent down payment until June 23.

Banks and financial institutions who failed to lower their interest rates to 9 per cent will not get government’s annual development programme fund.

Banks should develop data banks on their own in order to prevent billions of dollars from being siphoned out of Bangladesh through trade-based money laundering, a study recommended.

Pubali Bank recently saw the unanimous election of Azizul Huq, founder CEO of Islami Bank Bangladesh, Social Investment Bank and Islamic Finance and Investment, as chairman during a board meeting.

The head of the Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC) has expressed helplessness regarding the bearish run of the market, blaming the higher interest rate on savings certificates and bank deposits for the slump. “What can the commission do if the bank deposit

Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results, the influen-tial physicist Albert Einstein once said. And this quote comes to mind when one glances through the Bangladesh Bank’s latest policy for defaulters. Issued on May 16, the notice is an extended

The central bank has widened banks’ scope to invest in the stock market and infrastructural fund as the government looks to put a pause on the longer than usual bear run. The DSEX, the benchmark index of the premier bourse, lost 774.55 points, or 13.07 percent, in the last three months.

Shariah-based banks’ net profit margin declined to 2.2 percent in 2018 from 3 percent a year earlier at a time when the banking sector’s rose, found a recent study. The banking sector’s net profit margin improved to 3 percent from 2 percent last year, according to the study titled “Islamic Banking Operation of Banks-2018”.

The country has to count more than Tk 9,000 crore a year because of its heavy dependence on cash, necessity to move towards a cashless society. The maintenance cost of the printed money is nearly 0.50 percent of the country’s GDP, Central bank report styled ‘Reducing the Cash Transaction’.