AKM Zamir Uddin

When China sneezes, the world catches a cold, it is often said.

Conventional banks have to maintain 18.5 per cent statutory liquidity ratio (SLR) and cash reserve requirement (CRR) of their total clients’ deposits. They must also maintain a maximum 85 per cent loans-deposit ratio.

Pushed into a tight corner banks put up a spirited fight against the mounting default loans last year, as their loan recovery went up 15.46 per cent.

South Korea’s central bank started to quarantine all bank notes on March 6 for two weeks to remove any traces of coronavirus and even burn them as part of the government’s efforts to contain the outbreak.

Loans written-off by banks plunged to a five-year low in 2019 as lenders preferred relaxed rescheduling facility offered by the central bank to clean up their balance sheets.

Deposit growth in banks saw a steep decline in January, in a development that can be viewed as the direct impact of the capping of interest rate on savings to 6 per cent.

WhatsApp has become a non-negotiable part of the modern life. Which is why banks in many countries have embraced it to deliver their customer service very effectively.

Scamsters’ errant ways might soon be checked given a database the central bank is preparing.

This is not the first time that the central bank has engineered to impose a cap on interest rates on lending. It did something similar back in April 2009, just after Atiur Rahman assumed the role of governor of the banking watchdog.

MetLife Bangladesh has taken a set of initiatives to popularise the actuarial profession with a view to making the inert insurance sector vibrant, said Andrew D Rallis, global chief actuary of the American insurer.

The finance ministry mulls providing a single depositor a maximum of Tk 2 lakh within six months of a bank’s closure.

Poor revenue collection has forced the government to exceed its annual borrowing limit from banking sources seven and half a months into the fiscal year, creating a probable credit crunch for the private sector.

Agent banking, which takes banking services to the unbanked people, is going from strength to strength, with both deposit collection and loan disbursement on the rise.

Defaulted loans crept up last year despite the government’s attempts to subdue them -- by hook or by crook.

Standard Chartered is bullish about the fortunes of its Islamic banking business, Saadiq, in the country, seeing the religious bent of the Bangladeshis and the economy’s tremendous growth momentum, said the global head of the lender’s Shariah-based arm.

Expatriate Bangladeshis in Malaysia, the fifth highest source of remittance for the country, would soon be able to send in money to their near and dear ones at home on a real time basis thanks to a novel arrangement between Malaysian fintech firm Valyou, British bank Standard Chartered and local mobile financial service platform bKash.

The majority of banks have already implemented the 6 per cent interest rate on their fixed deposit schemes (FDR) as part of their preparation to provide loans at 9 per cent interest in a couple of months’ time.

The rot starts at the top, it is often said. And it is this pandemic that the central bank is looking to tackle in the new Banking Companies Act.

Bangladesh’s trade deficit widened slightly in the first half of the fiscal year on the back of sluggish exports, in a worrying development for the government.

Banks rescheduled a record amount of defaulted loans last year as part of their efforts to contain bad debt and show hefty profit.