Executive Officer/ Senior Executive Officer (Corporate Credit and Foreign Trade)

Prime Bank Limited

View all jobs of this company

Job Context

• The Bank is now looking for experienced candidate for the above position of its Audit & Inspection Department
• Job Location: Based in Dhaka with frequent field visits all over Bangladesh

Job Description / Responsibility

• Conduct regular/surprise/special audit and inspection of the Branches/ Divisions/ Departments/ Units/ Subsidiaries as per Annual Audit Plan and time to time directives of the Competent Authority.
• To examine records and transactions on sampling/rigorous (where necessary) basis and evaluate those in regards to compliance of instructions of regulatory bodies and Bank's own policies/ guidelines.
• To perform any other jobs assigned by the Chief Auditor.

Job Nature

Full-time

Educational Requirements

MBA/ MBM/ Masters in Accounting/ Management/ Marketing/ Finance & Banking/ Economics from any reputed University. CA/CMA (Partly qualified/ Intermediate) will be given preferences.

Experience Requirements

• At least 6 year(s)

Job Requirements

• Age At most 38 year(s)
• Minimum 6 years experience in banking environment. Candidates must have minimum 3/4 years experience in Corporate Credit/ Foreign Trade Operation of a bank. Candidates who have experience in Audit & Inspection Division! Risk Management Division! Corporate Division of any reputed financial institution will get preference.
• Sound knowledge and ability to assess & analyze various audit samples and assessment of risk grading/ factors in credit proposals.
• Well versed on Export! Import! Foreign Remittance operation of Bank
• Able to work under pressure and have ability & mindset to carry out assignments on audit or investigation work.
• CDCS will be considered as an added advantage.
• Ability to work independently.
• Knowledge of auditing processes and procedures.
• Knowledge in documentation.
• Good communication skills.
• Sound IT Skill in Microsoft Office (Specially MS Word, MS Excel, MS PowerPoint). Experience in any Core Banking Software will be given preference.
• Must be comfortable in both self-managed and team driven tasks.
• Should be Pro-active and having self motivated mindset.

Job Location

Dhaka

Salary Range

As per Bank`s policy

Other Benefits

As per Bank's policy

Job Source

Bdjobs.com Online Job Posting

Job Summary

Published on: Nov 17, 2016

Job Nature: Full-time

Experience: At least 6 year(s)

Age: At most 38 year(s)

Job Location: Dhaka

Application Deadline: Nov 30, 2016

Click here for detail

Apply Instruction

Interested and eligible candidate can apply for only one position of the following link: http://career.primebank.com.bd/career/joblist.html
. N.B: Only shortlisted candidates will be called for recruitment assessment. Any kind of persuasion in the recruitment process will lead to disqualification of candidature. The Bank reserves the right to accept or reject any or all of the applications without assigning any reason whatsoever.

Application Deadline : Nov 30, 2016

Company Information

Prime Bank Limited Business : Prime Bank Limited is one of the leading private commercial banks in the country and the proud recipient of numerous awards from ICAB, ICMAB and SAFA for its published accounts & reports, operational excellence and transparency in consecutive years.

IPDC's women entrepreneur financing

Industrial Promotion and Development Company (IPDC) has been playing a vital role in financing the women entrepreneurs of the country since 2009. It has dedicated relationship managers as well as help desks exclusively for women entrepreneurs in every branch. In the year 2015, as per the guideline of Bangladesh Bank, it has introduced a number of women entrepreneurs with the banking credit who didn't have such access with any bank or NBFI earlier. There are instances where the relationship managers assisted the potential women entrepreneurs in formalizing their businesses through soliciting trade license from the government regulatory authority, opening a bank account, preparing business cards or seals and maintaining financial statements like balance sheet, income statement etc. IPDC aspires to have more success stories in the year ahead and stand strong beside women entrepreneurs to realize their dreams. The IPDC is the first private sector financial institution of the country established in 1981 by a distinguished group of shareholders namely International Finance Corporation (IFC), USA, German Investment and Development Company (DEG), Germany, The Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development (AKFED), Switzerland, Commonwealth Development Corporation (CDC), UK and the Government of Bangladesh. Since its inception, IPDC has played a pivotal role in reshaping the private sector industrialization of the country through innovative financial products and services. Today IPDC is a diversified financial institution with a wide range of products and services covering corporate finance and advisory services, middle market supply chain finance, retail wealth management and retail finances.  (The writer is Head of Marketing & Corporate Communications at IPDC. e-mail : nousheen. rahman@ipdcbd.com)

Commercial banks' performance improves, say BB reports

Women working in banks are yet to get desired level of facilities in some particular areas despite having certain improvement in respect of getting maternity leave, transport facility and policy for addressing harassment against them. According to reports of the Bangladesh Bank (BB), performance of commercial banks in terms of providing facilities for its female staff has improved in the last four years since 2011. But state-owned commercial (SCBs), private commercial banks (PCBs) and foreign commercial banks (FCBs) show poor response to the central bank's guideline to introduce crèche. According to reports on 'gender issues in the financial sector' since 2011, some 51 banks now grant six-month maternity leave. The figure was 20 in 2011 while 29 in 2012 and 34 in 2013. Out of five SCBs, four made the order effective in 2011 and another SCB introduced 6-month maternity leave in 2014. The PCBs have taken time to introduce the provision of maternity leave as only 10 out of 39 banks granted it for female staff in 2011. The number of banks granting maternity leave increased to 37 in 2014, according to the BB report published in 2015.   The government in a gazette notification issued in January 2011 grants six-month maternity leave twice during service tenure. Earlier, the leave was for four months. Observers said although progress has been made in gender issues in financial institutions, allegations are there that the bank management show little interest in recruiting females due to the provision of six-month maternity leave. The central bank's data also showed that the percentage of female personnel at entry level in all commercial banks dropped to 13.70 per cent in 2014 from 16.88 per cent in the previous year. The percentage of female bankers below the age of 30 has also decreased to 18.35 per cent in 2014 from 20.70 per cent in 2013. Some female bankers told the FE that they face discriminations on the issue of promotion as months of maternity leave are counted negative in the annual confidential report (ACR). Of other gender issues, the BB data showed that some 25 banks including SCBs, PCBs and FCBs have policy for dealing with complaints about harassment which was only 17 banks in 2011. Though many female officials have alleged that they are facing different kinds of harassment including sexual one in workplaces, the central bank's data found no such complaints in last four years. Central bank officials said a provision to lodge complaints with the BB has also been there which work under the leadership of the deputy governor. But the females who talked to the FE correspondent said they did not file any complaint with the regulatory authority. The female bankers said they have either dealt with the situation internally with the help of other colleagues or left the bank to avoid unwanted situation. The central bank reports also showed that only six banks have crèche facility. Other than BRAC Bank Ltd, no banks had the facility till 2013. Of the six banks, one each of SCB and FCBs and four PCBs have the facility. Some 22 banks are now providing transport facility for female bankers when they have to work beyond usual working hours. The number of such banks was only 15 in 2011. Due to allegation brought against different bank management to keep female bankers quite a long time in head offices and branches after regular office hour, the BB also issued circular several times not to keep them after 6:00 pm. A research conducted by School of Economics under the University of Dhaka finds high risk of stress among 'participatory females' because of long working hour, job insecurity, lack of supervision, poor relationship with colleagues, workload, role conflict, lack of opportunity for growth and advancement and job dissatisfaction. The research titled 'causes and effects of stress among working women in banking sector' also finds that the highest number of working women (62%) having 1-5 years work experience was facing high stress.

mmizan07@gmail.com

Atiur terms money laundering as biggest crime

Dhaka, Mar 6: Bangladesh Bank governor Dr. Atiur Rahman on Sunday said that money laundering is the biggest crime in the financial sector.

 

“If money laundering is not checked, it would affect the financial stability of the country", he said while addressing the concluding session of the 3-day conference of the anti-money laundering officials of 56 banks at a resort in Habiganj district.

 

The conference, with deputy chief of the Financial Intelligent Unit of Bangladesh Bank Nawshad Ali Chowdhury in the chair, was also addressed, among others, by central bank deputy governor Abu Hena Razee Hasan.

 

The governor said that the people of the country are deprived of their rights due to the money laundering and terror financing. This hampers investment as well.

 

He urged the bank officials to be more alert against cyber crime as such crimes are rising with the increased level of digital transactions. He said that many organised gangs are now more active showing a big threat to global economic activities.

 

Dr. Atiur observed that the laundered money is entering many countries as foreign investment due to their weaknesses in terms of strategy and liberal economic policy.      

 

"Again this money leaves those countries within a few days. So this money never serves a country and have no contribution to the economy," he said. The central bank chief called the bankers to get united against such money laundering activities, according to UNB.

US$ 100 million worth of foreign reserves of the Bangladesh Bank, deposited with the US central bank, was stolen by a racket of hackers

Finance Minister AMA Muhith said Bangladesh Bank didn't inform him about the hacking into part of its foreign reserves kept with the Federal Reserve System, the central bank of the United States. According to sources, some US$ 100 million worth of foreign reserves of the Bangladesh Bank, deposited with the US central bank, was stolen by a racket of hackers of Chinese origin and transferred the money to Sri Lanka and the Philippines. Asked whether he knew anything about the incident that had taken place early last month, the minister replied in the negative. "No, I did not have any report from the central bank in this regard," he said while talking to a group of journalists who came to his residence on Monday afternoon to cover a meeting with World Bank (WB) vice-president for South Asia Annette Dixon. "This is very unusual situation," said the custodian of the exchequer, but he declined to make any statement on the issue. He, however, acknowledged that he had seen reports on the issue in newspapers. "I cannot say anything about this at the moment," he told the reporters. The central bank is desperately trying to recover the money. Bangladesh Bank usually keeps some 20-25 per cent of its reserves with central banks of various developed counties, including the USA and the UK, and invests some parts of it in bonds, gold and various financial institutions. Mr Muhith also informed the WB delegation about the international digital heist as they seemed to be very inquisitive when the finance minister was talking to the press after the meeting with the Bank delegates. The finance minister was also flanked by the World Bank's new country director, Qimiao Fan, who took over charge of Dhaka office Monday. WB vice-president Annette Dixon also talked to the press about Bangladesh's economic affairs and cooperation between the country and the global multilateral development financier.    The WB top executive praised Bangladesh's development progress over the years and expressed their willingness to work together with the government to help the country grow faster and bring prosperity to all citizens. "Bangladesh is making very good progress in many development outcome," said Dixon. WB assistance in international knowledge and financing, she said, will help Bangladesh make considerable progress in reducing poverty and improving people's standard of living. Dixon also expressed her satisfaction over the progress of the projects funded both by the government and the Bank. The WB vice-president also introduced the new country director, Qimiao Fan, to the journalists. A Chinese national, Fan joined the World Bank in 1991 and held leadership positions in different countries and regions of the world. Prior to taking up his current assignment, Fan served as the Country Director for Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine. From 1998 to 2002, he took leave from the World Bank to work in the private sector in various senior executive positions in China. mzrbd@yahoo.com

Banks' capital rises in Sept-Dec

Banks' overall capital increased 3.62 percent in the last quarter of 2015 as asset quality of most banks improved.

The banks' capital stood at Tk 75,352 crore on December 31, which was 10.84 percent of their total risk-weighted assets. The amount was Tk 72,720 crore on September 30.

In line with international standards, banks have to maintain a capital adequacy ratio of 10 percent against their risk-weighted assets.

Anwarul Islam, a spokesperson for the central bank, said despite economic slowdown globally, banks' capital base in Bangladesh is gradually getting stronger. It will strengthen further in future, he added.

In the last quarter of 2015, no bank saw a capital shortfall, he said.

According to central bank statistics, the overall capital shortfall in the banking sector in September last year was Tk 44 crore; but in December, capital surplus was Tk 2,396 crore.

Non-banks offer higher rates for deposits

When banks have slashed deposit rates to as low as 4 percent amid the declining demand for money, some non-bank financial institutions (NBFIs) offer “unsustainably” higher rates to attract deposits.
For example, Reliance Finance gives 10.75 percent interest for one-year deposits, while 10.25 percent and 9.75 percent for half-yearly and quarterly deposits.
The company also attracts clients with rates that can double their money in only six years.
“Rates vary depending on the credibility of the institutions. Depositors want more interest from a relatively less credible company,” said Asad Khan, managing director of Prime Finance.
Prime Finance offers highest 8.66 percent interest for deposits with a two-year tenure in the individual category, while the rate is 8 percent for banks and government agencies.
“An institution needs to take high-cost deposits to ensure liquidity as per regulatory requirements,” Khan said, explaining why some non-banks are offering higher rates for deposits.
Reliance Finance is not alone; some other non-banks also offer higher rates for deposits.
The rate is 10 percent at Premier Leasing and Finance for one-year deposits and 9.50 percent for half-yearly deposits.
International Leasing and Finance also offers a 10 percent interest rate for one-year deposits.
Clients will see their money double in just five years and nine months if they deposit with People's Leasing and Financial Services.
BIFC and First Finance also offer 10 percent interest rates for deposits.
Asaduzzaman Khan, managing director of IIDFC, expressed doubts over the sustainability of the business with such high costs of funds, as many lenders cannot invest their money even at 10 percent.
“Cost of funds (deposits) at 10.75 percent is not sustainable at the moment. I have failed to attract a client even by offering 9.5 percent for a loan,” he said.
Khan said IIDFC now offers maximum 9.5 percent for fixed deposit, which will go down further next month. In many cases, he said, IIDFC is discouraging fresh deposits.
Mafizuddin Sarker, chairman of Bangladesh Leasing and Finance Companies Association and managing director of BD Finance, sees another reason why some non-banks collect high-cost deposits.
“Many banks do not want to deposit their money with troubled NBFIs. Even these institutions do not get loans from the call money market,” Sarker said.
Jalal Uddin, managing director of Reliance Finance, admitted they are taking high-cost deposits. But he said the rate will go down next month.

DBBL introduces virtual cards for app developers

Dutch-Bangla Bank Ltd has rolled out virtual cards for individual app developers and programmers, solving the difficulties they face when making international transactions online.
A virtual card has an annual card limit of $300.
The amount can be used to pay for games, software licence, mobile and games application development, vendor certification exam fee, domain registration, hosting, cloud service and hackathon on online market places such as Windows, Android, iOS, BlackBerry and Firefox.
Sayem Ahmed, chairman of DBBL; KS Tabrez, managing director of the private commercial bank; and Shameem Ahsan, president of Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services, inaugurated the service at a press conference at the Westin hotel in Dhaka on Tuesday.
Speaking at the event, Ahsan said individual app developers and programmers have been facing troubles for not having the payment service in Bangladesh.
BASIS has been negotiating with Bangladesh Bank for a long time to take the necessary steps to this effect.
The BB directed banks to issue virtual cards in 2014 to facilitate international payments online.
“We hope the initiative will mitigate the hazards the individual developers and programmers were facing during online international transactions,” he said in a statement.
Ahsan said the first step on the path to the app stores is to register as a developer in order to get started with app development.
Global debit card system is essential to facilitate the payments for app store registration fees and domains, and participation at boot camps and courses offered by different international organisations on apps development.
As per directive from the central bank, BASIS will verify whether an applicant meets the criteria of being a developer or programmer.
BASIS will then authorise the authentic applicants to be issued the virtual cards.
To get the cards, applicants will have to show the certificate provided to participants during programmes on mobile apps, games and hackathons run by BASIS or the ICT Division.
Initially, BASIS members used to enjoy the service. But now it is open to students, IT professionals and entrepreneurs, according to the association.
Ahsan hopes the youth will now be encouraged to join IT-related professions.
DBBL has started the service at all of its branches, said officials of the bank.
BASIS Senior Vice President Russell T Ahmed, Secretary General Uttam Kumar Paul and Director Suny Md Ashraf Khan were also present.

BB triples limit for online purchase

Bangladesh Bank has tripled the limit for international online purchases to $300 per transaction to give a boost to credit card users.
In May 2013, the BB allowed users of international credit cards for the first time to make overseas online purchases with a limit of spending $100 per transaction.
The central bank enhanced the limit in a circular yesterday and also widened the online purchasing scope to magazine and newspaper subscription.
Earlier, the scope was limited only to legitimate purchase of goods and services such as downloadable software and e-books from reputed and reliable sources abroad.
There are about eight lakh credit card users in Bangladesh.
Credit card companies and banks welcomed the move.
The use of credit cards for online payment across borders would benefit consumers immensely, said Ziaul Karim, head of brand and communications at Eastern Bank.
“The more such transactions are done through the formal channel, the better for the country,” he said.
Bitopi Das Chowdhury, head of corporate affairs at Standard Chartered Bank Bangladesh, the major player in the country's credit card industry, said this would definitely benefit the users and will boost ecommerce.
Online payments for such purchases are limited to the available unused annual travel quotas of the international credit card holders plus an additional amount not exceeding $1,000 annually, according to the BB notice released in May 2013.
The annual travel quota is $5,000 for Saarc countries and Myanmar and $7,000 for non-Saarc countries.

Forex reserves hit record

 

 

Bangladesh’s foreign currency reserve has crossed a record $ 28 billion standing on a rise in export and incoming remittances from abroad. Photo: STAR FILE

Bangladesh's foreign currency reserve crossed a record $28 billion, riding on a hike in exports and remittances.
“It is attributed to falling commodity prices, particularly oil, a rise in export and inflowing remittances,” Kazi Sayedur Rahman, general manager for the forex reserve and treasury management department of Bangladesh Bank, told The Daily Star yesterday.
The $28 billion reserves are enough to meet the country's import bills for eight months, according to the central bank. The reserves may decline a bit next month as a payment will be made to the Asian Clearing Unit, a BB official said.
Reserves rose to $27 billion at the end of last year, from $23 billion in February and $24 billion in April 2015.
Exports grew by 8.26 percent to $19.26 billion in the first seven months of the current fiscal year, with a growth rate of 10.41 percent in January 2016 alone.

Regulator finds Agrani MD's links to Tk 792cr anomalies

Regulator finds Agrani MD's links to Tk 792cr anomalies

The managing director of Agrani Bank violated rules for loans amounting to Tk 792 crore, Bangladesh Bank finds in an inspection into the state bank.
The BB last week served notice on Syed Abdul Hamid seeking explanations from him under the Banking Companies Act for nine counts of irregularities.
The show-cause notice is a second instance of action against the managing director of a state bank.
If his clarification is not satisfactory, the central bank can remove him from the post of managing director of the state-run bank, as per the amended law of 2013.
Before the amendment, the central bank could not remove a chief executive of a state bank.
The BB served such notice for the first time on BASIC Bank's Managing Director Kazi Faqurul Islam, who was later removed.
The move against Hamid comes after the central bank's inspections into Agrani's main branch and the Asadganj and Laldighi East branches in Chittagong established the allegations against him.

The BB notice said Hamid approved loans for a select few clients by violating the directives of the central bank and the board of directors of Agrani.
In 2011, a Tk 120 crore loan was extended to Tanaka Tradecom International from the bank's main branch. The loan was approved by Agrani's board with the condition that supplementary collateral must be kept as security with the bank.
Tanaka Tradecom later proposed changes to the condition, which Hamid approved without the consent of the board.
Later in 2015, he rescheduled loans of the company amounting to Tk 10.79 crore -- a decision he was not authorised to make.
In another instance of violation, Hamid rescheduled a Tk 42.38 crore fund for Muhib Steel & Ship Recycling Industries that was already classified as bad loan.
Once again, he went above and beyond his authority to do so and without taking the approval of the board.
Not only that, Muhib Steel was given letters of credit facility time and again, which took its total outstanding amount to Agrani to Tk 91.93 crore. The entire amount has now been classified as bad loans.
Serious irregularities were also committed by Hamid when disbursing loans to Mizanur Rahman Mizan, a customer of Agrani's main branch, and various companies linked to the client's Sun Moon Group.
The outstanding loans now stand at Tk 300 crore and they have become risky.
In another move, the BB had instructed Agrani not to delegate any responsibility to its deputy managing director, Mizanur Rahman, temporarily for irregularities. The bank's board of directors directed the management to carry out the regulator's instruction.
Yet, Rahman was given the charge of different divisions including the recovery division -- a clear violation of the BB directive and the decision of the board, according to the central bank letter.
An official of the BB said the central bank inspections also found irregularities in loans given to Agrani's many other clients, including Zaynab Trading of Chittagong.

Duped clients ask banks to be more careful about scamsters

• 

  Bangladesh Bank Deputy Governor Naznin Sultana hands a cheque to bdnews24.com journalist Mahbuba Akter Dina.Clients who found their money withdrawn through ATM fraud have advised banks to be more vigilant about security measures.The call came on Thursday at the Bangladesh Bank during a ceremony where Eastern Bank Limited (EBL) repaid clients who fell prey to scamsters.The bank had identified that 24 of its clients’ money was with drawn after their personal information was stolen by skimming devices installed at ATM booths. Five of them were handed over cheques on Thursday while the rest were reimbursed in bank accounts.The fraud came to light after ‘freak transactions’ over Thursday and Friday were reported. Altogether, Tk 2.59 million were stolen from the accounts of 36 clients of four banks, including EBL. Tk 1.75 million alone were stolen from 24 clients of EBL.

Mahbuba Akter Dina speaks at Thursday's programme at Bangladesh Bank.

After a foreigner was caught on CCTV footage at a United Commercial Bank (UCB) ATM booth at Banani, police are now keeping five foreign nationals under surveillance as they resemble the suspect.

In the footage, the man was seen installing in the ATM a skimming device that was used to steal the clients’ information.

One of the EBL clients who lost money was bdnews24.com journalist Mahbuba Akter Dina. She lost Tk 80,000.

Dina was the first client to notify both EBL and the central bank of the fraud.

At Thursday’s programme, she said, “I was stunned when I saw that Tk 80,000 had been withdrawn from my account. I hadn’t withdrawn it and had my card with me. Then who could have done that?”

“Then I called the bank’s customer care to complain and block my account.”

She and other victims urged the banks to be more alert to prevent such fraudulent activities.

Bangladesh Bank Deputy Governor Naznin Sultana hands a cheque to bdnews24.com journalist Mahbuba Akter Dina.

Bangladesh Bank Deputy Governor Naznin Sultana admitted that the banks had failed to thwart the frauds, but also urged the clients to be more aware.

“Such frauds take place in developed countries too. But compared to them such incidents in Bangladesh are lower in number.”

She said the central bank wanted to fully digitalise the banking sector. “The world is moving ahead. We need to utilise technology over these incidents.”

Sultana urged all banks to begin SMS alerts and follow the central bank’s directives.

EBL Additional Managing Director Hassan O Rashid apologised to the victims of the fraud and said, “We’ll try to make sure that such incidents will never happen again.”

Bangladesh Bank Executive Director Subhankar Saha said the other three banks will repay their clientswithin one week.