Bangladesh Bank Headquarters
Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN) - The BBN (Bangladesh Business News) has prepared the morning business round up compiling reports, published by different newspapers and news portals in Bangladesh.
Directors go scot free, bank officials chased
Lower and mid-level bankers are facing prosecution for loan scams while boards of directors get off scot-free and even some of them have been promoted although they have failed to prevent misappropriation of billions of taka from the state-owned banks in the past nine years. The Anti-Corruption Commission has so far brought charges or arrested 41 bankers for their alleged involvement in the loan scams, including embezzlement of Tk 3,700 crore by Hallmark Group from Sonali Bank and Tk 6,000 crore from BASIC Bank, said commission officials.
Commission needed to protect banks: Ibrahim Khaled
The government should form a commission to look into the reasons for the current vulnerable situation of the banking sector, said Khondkar Ibrahim Khaled, a former deputy governor of the Bangladesh Bank yesterday. “The sector is not doing well, so the government should give attention to the sector to overcome the crisis,” he said at a technical session of the BIBM Research Almanac 2018.
Merger, acquisition panacea for badly-performing banks
An expert opinion suggests forced merger or acquisition is the desperate remedy for the poorly-performing banks, especially where the underlying problem persists permanently. Such suggestion came up in a study that also recommended punishment of the wrongdoers by the regulatory authority as there remains tendency among directors of weak banks not to go for merger willingly.
Demand for 4G smartphones on the rise
The demand for 4G supported smartphones have increased after the introduction of 4G in the country by mobile phone operators. Mobile phone users have started looking for 4G supported phones in local markets and online. Smartphone suppliers have remarked that a craze for 4G supported smartphones is already in course, and now people are in the process of selecting the right one that matches their requirements.
Bangladesh’s stocks open week on sharp decline
Bangladesh’s stocks witnessed yet another bearish session Sunday, extending the losing streak for the fifth day in a row, with key index of the major bourse declining below 5,900-mark. Analysts said the persistent liquidity shortage coupled with ongoing pessimism kept investors mostly inactive, taking the key index below 5,900-mark once again.
Give poor, excluded ownership in public, private assets
Experts and economists on Sunday advocated ownership of the poor and excluded groups of society in public and private assets in a bid to remove poverty and inequality and promote an inclusive growth in the country. Workers, rickshaw pullers, slum dwellers and other marginalised groups may be provided with ownership in factories and other industrial and infrastructure projects such as the under-construction Padma Bridge, they said at a dialogue at the BRAC Centre Inn in Dhaka.
Experts suggest equal, long-term policy supports for leather sector
The country's leather sector needs rational, equal, implementable and long-term policy supports from the government to attain the US$5.0-billion export earning target from the sector by 2021, experts, industry people and participants opined at a workshop on Sunday. They identified a number of issues, including excessive cost of doing business, infrastructural bottlenecks, exchange rate appreciation, and discriminatory policy measures for the non-RMG (ready-made garment) sectors, as major problems that are affecting the local leather industry.
Sustainable energy major challenge for Bangladesh: ICCB
Sustainable and uninterrupted energy is critical for the economic growth, International Chamber of Commerce-Bangladesh (ICCB) said. The per capita energy consumption in Bangladesh is one of the lowest in the world (433 KWH as of October 2017). The installed capacity of Bangladesh in 1972 was only 200 MW. Since then, the current power generation has increased to 16,046 MW with 600 MW import from India, according to the editorial of the current News Bulletin (Oct-Dec 2017) of the ICCB, released on Sunday.
BBN/SSR/AD