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BB urged banks to make rural branches more effective, client-friendly

. B&F Report
Bangladesh Bank Governor Dr Atiur Rahman has urged banks to make their rural branches more effective for making the rural agro-based economy more bolstered, client-friendly.
"We have given instruction to all the private banks to open equal number of branches in rural and urban areas," he said adding that Bangladesh Bank has adopted diversified programmes to bring a strategic change in banking sector surveillance.
He was addressing a day-long regional meeting titled "Controlling Risks and Enhancing Returns at the branch Level" held at Moonlight Garden Conference Centre in Rajshahi as the chief guest on Sunday.
Around 120 bank-supervisors from Rajshahi, Bogra and Rangpur regions took part in the workshop organised by Bangladesh Bank (BB).
The governor said the 47 scheduled banks and 31 financial institutions in the country are being operated with intensive supervision of the Bangladesh Bank and the financial institutions are providing various important banking services like lease financing which are helpful for the small and medium enterprises.
"There is no way but to make the branches more effective for making the rural agro-based economy more bolstered and the bank branches should be clients-friendly and that needed to be brought under close supervision', he said.
He said banks provided loans of Tk 3,50,000 cr against deposits of Tk 4,50,000 cr. It should be increased to gear up agro-based economy.
Considering the risks as the prime factor, Dr Atiur said overall matters of the banking sectors are being monitored and supervised strictly through adopting new more time- fitting steps like offsite and onsite overseeing.
Dr Atiur Rahman said main thrust of the supervision is to build peoples trust on banking sector, ensure security of the deposited money and enhance discipline of the banks.
Referring to the global economic scenario he said the Bangladesh's GDP was 5 percent in last decade and that has stood to near 6.5 percent at present.
With Zinnatul Bakeya, General Manager of BB, Rajshahi Branch, in the chair, Prof Sanat Kumar Shaha, Director of BB Board of Directors, Glenn Tasky, Banking Supervision Adviser, Naushad Ali Chowdhury, Executive Director and Consultant Biru Paksha also spoke on the occasion.
Governor Dr Atiur Rahman asked the supervisors to perform their duties with utmost sincerity and honesty to make the branch-level banking activities transparent, accountable and free from money-laundering and financing towards criminal activities.
He said the Bangladesh Bank commits to build a strong and translucent banking which is the main pillar of a sustainable economic growth.
Earlier in a loan distribution programme in Serajgong, the governor said the central bank is going to ensure credit flow to productive sectors with the view to tame up the inflation through increasing the supply of essential commodities as per the demand.
"We've asked all banks to increase credit flow to productive sectors to minimize inflationary pressures side by side with taking various steps to discourage import of luxurious goods and reduce credit to this sector," he said.
The BB governor said he is going to announce a monetary policy on July 18 with a strategy of ensuring credit flow to productive sectors.
The policy would remain cautious so the credit flow to the private sector maintains its expansion with creating new job opportunity to propel GDP (gross domestic product) growth, which is targeted at 7.20 percent for the FY13.
According to BB, the credit flow to the private sector was 18.22 percent in April. The credit flow, which was in line with the neighbouring countries, indicated that the fear of decline in credit flow due to the "restrained" monetary policy proved unfounded.