Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN) - The BBN has prepared the morning business round up compiling reports, published by different newspapers and news portals in Bangladesh.
Bangladesh’s forex reserves down to $18.42b after ACU payment: Bangladesh made a routine payment of US$960 million to the Asian Clearing Union (ACU) against imports during the January-February period of this calendar year, officials said. After the payment, the country’s foreign exchange (forex) reserve came down to $18.42 billion Sunday from $19.34 billion on the previous working day, according to the central bank statistics.
Sonali Bank Vaults:Cash beyond limit, all uninsured: The inspection also found that some of these branches maintain locker facilities inside the vaults, exposing them to robberies as any locker user can take a chance. A principal officer of Sonali Bank's Bogra Corporate Branch said branches in upazilas and rural areas were not permitted to reserve over Tk 15 lakh in their vaults. But due to the shortage of vehicles, small branches often cannot send the additional amount to the secured vault at the district branch. While the state-run Sonali Bank has shown sheer negligence in insuring the money in its vaults, private banks fully comply with the central bank's regulations.
Trade gap narrows to $2.78b in July-Jan on poor import growth: The country’s trade deficit narrowed by 35.01 per cent in the first seven months of the current financial year compared with that of the same period of the FY 2012-13 due to a rise in exports against a poor growth in imports.
According to the latest Bangladesh Bank (BB) data, the deficit decreased to $2.78 billion in July-January of the FY14 from $4.28 billion in the same period of the FY13. Experts and BB officials said that the narrowed trade gap would not put much positive impact on the country’s macro-economic situation as the imports did not increase in accordance with the industrial sector’s requirement in the period.
Banks show mixed trend in dividends: Listed banks are demonstrating a mixed trend in dividends declared for 2013. Of the 30 listed banks, 10 have so far distributed profits to the shareholders; four banks declared higher dividends than last year, two have declared lower dividends, while four have given the same dividends as last year, according to data from Dhaka Stock Exchange. Although 2013 was a tough year for banks as business activities were hampered by political unrest, the central bank's move to relax loan rules at the end of the year helped them recover losses, a banker said yesterday.
MoF summons SoCBs' chiefs over repeated bank heists: Concerned about the security of public money following burglaries in bank branches, the ministry of finance (MoF) has summoned the chief executives of state-owned commercial banks (SoCBs). The chief executives would have to appear before the MoF high-ups Monday (today) to answer queries about steps taken to ensure security of vaults at bank branches. "We had issued an order to ensure security of bank vaults across the country after the vulgarly in Sonali Bank's Kishoreganj branch. But it appears that none paid heed to our instruction," a senior official of the MoF told the FE Sunday.
Safety action in apparel sector: The commerce minister and owners of apparel factories on Sunday lambasted European and North American retailers over their safety action and observed that a strong international conspiracy was on to harm Bangladesh’s apparel export.‘A lobby is working against Bangladesh’s economy to harm our export business as the country is moving ahead fast,’ the commerce minister, Tofail Ahmed, said as he spoke at an exchange of views with apparel factory owners in the BGMEA auditorium on the current situation of the apparel sector.
Three kg gold seized at airport, smuggling rises in Bangladesh: Customs officials seized 30 gold bars weighing three kilograms from a passenger of Malaysian Airlines flight at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in the capital early Sunday. The officials detained the passenger, Saiham, after MS-196 carrying him landed the airport from Malaysia around 11:45am, a senior custom intelligence official confirmed. While searching, the customs officials found the gold bars worth around BDT 1 3.5 million from inside his shoe around 12:10am, the official added.
BB relaxes provisions on submitting stocks investment report: The central bank of Bangladesh has relaxed provisions allowing the banks to submit their reports on subsidiaries’ investment in stock market on weekly basis instead of daily basis. Under the amended provisions, the commercial banks have to submit their capital market day-to-day stock market investment reports every Thursday. “The latest instruction comes into effect from Sunday,” a senior official of the Bangladesh Bank (BB) told BBN in Dhaka.
BBN/SSR/SI-10Mar14-8:46 am (BST)