Good morning. Here's what happened overnight and what you need to know today.
1.
Rising Remittance Provides a Breather amid Forex Crisis: Remittance inflow has continued to rise for the past few months, providing a breather for a country facing multiple challenges, including external payment pressures amid dwindling foreign exchange reserves. In October, remittances sent home by Bangladesh's migrant workers rose 21.31 percent year-on-year to $2.39 billion following a 40 percent jump in August and 80 percent jump in September, central bank data showed. (The Daily Star)
2.
S Alam Group Faces First Auction of Mortgaged Assets for Defaulting Tk1850cr Loans: In a move to recover Tk1,850 crore unpaid loans from S Alam Group, Janata Bank has announced auctioning off collateral assets of Global Trading Corporation Limited, a subsidiary of the controversial conglomerate. This marks the first time a bank has moved to auction the mortgaged assets of an S Alam Group company amid allegations that the group syphoned off billions of taka from various banks through loans during Sheikh Hasina's 15-year tenure. (The Business Standard)
3.
HC Orders Probing ex-BB Governor Rouf, NBL: The High Court on Sunday directed the government bodies concerned to investigate former Bangladesh Bank governor Abdur Rouf Talukder and the National Bank management for rescheduling loans of Bashundhara Group. It instructed the authorities to probe the National Bank chairman and managing director for rescheduling Tk 38.59-billion loans in favour of several subsidiaries Bashundhara Group in violation of banking rules. (The Financial Express)
4.
Now Coal Power Plants Scaling Back Production: Coal-fired power plants are dialling down production or even shutting down due to financial, legal or technical issues, leading to power cuts across the country, especially the rural areas. Gas-fired power producers have already been in this state since June. The country's seven coal-based power plants, with a combined capacity of 7,099 megawatts (MW), are producing around 3,199MW. (The Daily Star)
5.
Bank Asia in the Red in Q3, Squeezed by Higher Provisions: Bank Asia has reported a loss of Tk 1.03 billion for July-September this year, owing to higher provisions against loans and advances. The loss per share amounts to Tk 0.89 for the quarter, as opposed to a profit of Tk 0.18 earned in the same quarter a year earlier. The lender plunged into the red in the third quarter to September mainly for the higher provisions, said the bank in its earnings note. Interest income against bad loans that accrue on paper but have not been received in reality needs to be excluded from the profit and loss accounts. (The Financial Express)
6.
Govt Gets Tightfisted on Rising Treasuries' Yields: The government seems to be tightening fist on rising yields from treasury bills in a bid to rein in bank-lending rates and price-fuelling inflation, after having offered generous bets. Officials and experts say the strategy change of the government on interest regime becomes clear in very recent auctions of treasury bills where the auction committee only accepted bids within the target so the cut-off yields didn't increase further. Among the investment instruments in government securities, treasury bills turn most lucrative segments wherein commercial lenders are seen putting maximum investment to book short-term gains under the current macroeconomic context. (The Financial Express)
----Saju Sarker