The High Court on Wednesday ordered that banks and financial institutions will not be allowed to file any case against any person over cheque dishonor. The HC bench of Justice Md Ashraful Kamal passed the order after turning down the cheque dishonor case of Brac Bank against a small businessman for loan recovery. At the same time, the court ordered stopping the proceedings of all check dishonor cases pending in the trial court. Read more: HC revokes bail of militant arrested from Mymensingh However, a case can be filed in the Money Loan Court only under the Money Loan Act of 2003 for loan recovery, the HC said. HC also instructed the lower courts to dismiss the cheque dishonour cases filed by any banks or financial institutions and send those to the Money Loan court. On June 20 in 2016, Mohammad Ali, a small businessman of Brahmanbaria, was sentenced to six-month imprisonment and fined Tk 2.95 lakh in a cheque dishonour case. Read more: HC issues rule on compensation for daily labourers jailed by mobile court On July 27 in 2015, Brac Bank filed the cheque dishonour case against Mohammad Ali . Ali appealed to the HC against the judgment. The HC relieved him of the imprisonment and ordered him to pay back 50 percent of the loan within the next 10 days, said his counsel Advocate Abdullah Al Baki. Meanwhile, Brac Bank’s counsel Saifuzzaman Tuhin said they will appeal against the HC order.

Bangladesh Bank (BB) has instructed banks and Financial Institutions (FIs) to continue uninterrupted banking services with limited manpower despite worsening Covid situation. All the scheduled banks, FIs were asked to take Business Continuity Plan (BCP) along with execution preparations of to continue the banking services. Payment System Department (PSD) of the BB on Tuesday issued a notification in this regard and sent to the top executives of all banks and FIs to implement immediately. READ: BB asks banks to operate office with half of manpower The notification asked the banks and FIs  to encourage customers to prefer Mobile Application based banking, Card Not Present (CNP), near field communication (NFC) transactions instead of physical presence based transactions. The BB asked the concerned to keep enough money in the cash out points, mobile financial service (MFS), agent banking outlets and ATM booths to meet the customers’ instant demand of cash money. READ: Bank officials, staff must have vaccine certificates :BB Besides, the banks were asked to ensure necessary cyber security measures along with adequate precautionary steps to meet emergency services.

From now on, the chief executive officer (CEO) of any financial institution has to take permission from the Bangladesh Bank before leaving the country.  Bangladesh Bank in a circular on Monday made this mandatory provision. Earlier, a similar provision was made for the CEOs of the banks operating across the country.     Also read: Bangladesh Bank orders freezing bank accounts of ex-deputy governor SK Sur, his wife The central bank circular, issued by the Financial Institutions and Market Department, said that if any CEO of a financial institution stays outside the country for a long period of time for official work or enjoying personal leave, it may create potential management and operational risk including financial loss alongside decreasing overall institutional pace which is not expected anyway.  Against this backdrop, the BB said, the CEOs of the financial institutions are advised to avoid staying outside Bangladesh for a long period of time as far as possible.  Read Unilever Bangladesh appoints Zaved Akhtar as CEO, MD “The CEO of a financial institution operating in Bangladesh, if required to travel abroad, has to take the approval of Bangladesh Bank before leaving the country. In this case, the CEO will apply to Bangladesh Bank for the approval before 15 days of the travel attaching a copy of the decision of the board of directors of the concerned institution. The application must have necessary and detail information about the applicant including his and his institution’s names, national ID number, passport number, purpose of the visit, approximate expense of the travel, proposed time of the travel, address in abroad, and the information of last traveling.     Also read: BB sets new transaction timing for banks from July 15 If the application is approved by the Bangladesh Bank, the CEO will inform the secretariat of Bangladesh Bank Governor and Financial Institutions and Market Department as who will act as acting CEO during his absence mentioning his name, position, official phone number, cell phone number, email address, said the BB circular.

The Bangladesh Bank has signed participation agreements (PAs) with 12 banks and two financial institutions (FIs) to operate its Technology Development Fund (TDF), a refinance scheme of Tk1,000 crore. Earlier, the fund was launched in line with Export Policy 2018-21 to enhance competitiveness and sustainability of the export-oriented industries, said the central bank on Saturday. Also read: Central bank to support SMEs build resilience Bangladesh Bank Deputy Governor Abu Farah Md Nasser was present at the signing ceremony. The central bank's Executive Director Nurun Nahar and General Manager of the Sustainable Finance (SDF) Department Khondkar Morshed Millat were also present at the event. Also read: BB eases accessing foreign loans by foreign companies The general manager of SFD and the chief executives of Agrani Bank, Bank Asia, Dhaka Bank, Modhumoti Bank, NCC Bank, One Bank, NRBC Bank, Standard Bank, Uttara Bank, Trust Bank, United Commercial Bank, Prime Bank, Lankabangla Finance and Lankan Alliance Finance signed the PAs on behalf of their organisations.

Bangladesh Bank has brought another relaxation in repayment of loans by allowing the borrowers to make their due payments to financial institutions in more installments considering the Covid-19 effects.

China's central bank said Friday that it will take measures to support financial institutions in issuing various financial bonds to aid the prevention and control of the novel coronavirus outbreak.