‘Factoring is buying receivable,’ explained Alexander Pinkas, chief executive officer of DS-Concept Factoring, a German company that has emerged in the last couple of weeks as the first and only German export finance tool in Bangladesh – as the tagline of its advertising campaign suggests.
   Headquartered in Monchengladbach in Germany, the company has offices in Pakistan, Dubai, Turkey, Bulgaria, Egypt, and the USA.
   Before DS-Factoring offers its services to an exporter, it checks the creditworthiness of the importer through the world famous German insurance company Euler Hermes. If Euler Hermes gives ‘green light’, DSCF provides its services to the Bangladeshi exporter. The one most attractive benefit of using DSCF product, according to the company profile, is that it includes 100 per cent credit insurance and, therefore, the exporter gets paid even if the importer goes bankrupt.
   In case DS-Factoring is asked for changing a deferred letter of credit into a new sight LC, the payment is reduced by a security deposit of 20 per cent provided by the importer, which also can be a deferred LC. It basically means, the company buys the terms of the deferred payments incorporated in normal LCs and or documents accepted and makes payments to the exporter immediately to the tune of 80 per cent and the remaining 20 per cent after the maturity date. This procedure also enables the importer to handle five times higher order volume with the same amount of money, according to Pinkas.
   This way exporter-importer and supplier-buyer relationship improves, as there is less risk and less delay in payment and therefore you can always ask for extra discount while you do business, since quick payment means that your supplier has an extra advantage over those suppliers who do not use DS-Factoring. International buyers would not need to open a LC, thus the buyer would not need to ask for credit line, which means the finances of the buyer are more liquid and his business more secured.
   In case of LC playing out the whole process of shipment of goods and delivery and final inspection of the importer before payment, the exporter would have had to wait maybe up to 180 days before getting paid.
   DS-Factoring claims to facilitate exports of goods in various ways. When the importer opens the LC, payments can be deferred while the importer receives goods after the supply chain formalities end. The importer then checks the goods and then delivers the goods to the ultimate buyer on the basis of an open invoice. Sometimes, payments from the ultimate buyer to the importers could take upto 210 days after placement of order from importer to exporter. ‘While payment is in the process, the exporter is in the mercy of changing market realities that often lead to sudden changes in the financial conditions of different companies, in this case the importer, putting the investment of exporter at risk. This is a risk against which DS-Factoring can be the right choice, says Pinkas.
   Apparently, DS-Factoring as a company can also be a marketing tool, because while the company is in negotiation with the exporter it can be helpful by carrying out a background check which it can share with the exporter and thereby giving the exporter extra data about the importer’s financial status, says the DSCF CEO.
   It is always an interesting development when a foreign investor shows confidence in Bangladesh and more so when the company offers a financial product that will ostensibly benefit not only the ready-made garment exporters but also other important export playgrounds, such as jute, shrimps, and pharmaceuticals. Upbeat about Bangladesh, Pinkas thinks that the country has a great future and more business and investment would be taking place here as time goes on.

High-level delegates including heads of state were gathering in Doha on Friday for a UN-sponsored conference seeking ways to limit the impact of the financial crisis on developing countries.
   UN chief Ban Ki-moon, French president Nicolas Sarkozy, and head of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, are around 50 leaders — half of them from Africa — expected in Qatar.
   Zimbabwean pesident Robert Mugabe is also reportedly headed to the Qatari capital despite his country battling a serious humanitarian crisis and a deadly outbreak of cholera.
   Developed countries have so far committed to pay less than 20 billion dollars a year of the 50 billion dollars in additional aid which they agreed in 2004 to donate by 2010, UN figures show.
   The new money leaves total annual development aid far short of the 130 billion dollars a year targeted for 2010 by the UN’s Millennium Development Goals.
   At a time when major powers like the United States, European Union and China are ploughing hundreds of billions of dollars into their own economies, they are likely to find it harder then ever to come up with the promised extra help for poorer nations.
   Friday’s discussions aim to ‘act as a bridge from the G20 Washington meeting... by proposing concrete actions that limit the impact of the financial crisis on developing countries,’ a UN spokesman said.
   Participants will also seek to ‘maximise the potential for responses to the crisis that also address climate change,’ he said.
   The meeting comes the day before the official start of the Doha Conference on Financing for Development, a four-day UN event following on the 2002 conference in Monterrey that achieved a landmark North-South agreement on development principles.
   Friday’s high-level get-together is billed as a ‘retreat’ and it remained unclear exactly who would attend.
   However, Barroso scheduled a news conference for Friday afternoon, while Ban and Qatari Emir Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani were to speak to the media in the evening.
   ‘Slower economic growth and continued uncertainty are threatening efforts to tackle the key concerns of the United Nations and its members: human security, poverty and hunger, and climate change,’ the UN spokesman said.
   Ban organised the Doha ‘retreat’ after leaders at the G20 summit on November 15 agreed to work on a joint plan of action to restore the world economy.
   The participants are to discuss Qatari proposals for a reform of the international financial system, including a mechanism for monitoring the world’s leading 30 banks, according to organisers.
   A mooted IMF early-warning system for financial crises is also expected to figure on the agenda.
   The G20 leaders have agreed to meet again in London next April but Ban hopes an interim meeting can make progress on the UN’s particular concerns.
   Friday’s ‘retreat’ and the financing conference come in the wake of a call by the World Bank on Thursday for donors to boost aid to poor nations hit by a financial crisis that is ‘not of their making.’
   Sarkozy is due to arrive on Saturday in Doha, where he is to hold a joint meeting with the Qatari emir and Sudanese pesident Omar al-Beshir to discuss the Darfur conflict.
   The French leader, in his address to the conference which runs until Tuesday, is expected to try to assure African countries that the financial crisis would not jeopardise European aid.

The farmers in Fulgachh village under Lalmonirhat Sadar upazila have found Vegetable farming a way of survival and wellbeing.
   Before they took up vegetable cultivation using modern method in 2003, the village used to be visited by monga every year. Poverty was a curse the villagers had to suffer from perpetually, as the soil of their land was too sandy to yield any substantial amount of rice or other cash crops.
   But, now the farmer’s families of this village are known as well off in the entire district. They grow a large variety of vegetables, including bitter gourd, pumpkin, chilli, potato, tomato, onion, garlic, lemon, sweet potato, cucumber, beans, and sesame. They also grow vegetable seeds, with assistance from the local Lal Teer Seed Company.
   Hossain Ali, a middle-aged farmer of Fulgachh, owned only 10 decimals of land. In 2003, he cultivated green chilli seeds for the first time in that land, taking advice and help from the Lal Teer Seed Company. In the first year, he earned Tk 30,000 by selling 3.0 kilograms of those seeds. Next year he earned Tk 35,000 and bought another 10-decimal plot from his neighbour Kahlilur Rahman. In 2006 he earned Tk 50,000 by selling green chilli and tomato seeds and this year he hopes to earn Tk 70,000.
   ‘This year I have bought 15 decimals of land more and I will cultivate bitter gourd on this newly-purchased land. I have also built a tin-roof house on my land,’ Hossain told New Age.
   Hayat Ali, 54, Shamsul Alam, 40, Sajib Barmon, 42, Santosh Sarker, 52, Ashraf Mandol, 48, and other farmers of the village agree that they have found a perfect way out of dire poverty in vegetable cultivation, as Fulgachh land is not suitable for growing rice or other conventional crops.
   Growing vegetable on one-bigha land costs Tk 20,000 to Tk 30,000, while the return ranges from Tk 1.0 lakh to Tk 1.5 lakh, they said. They cultivate vegetables three times a year but grow vegetable seeds only once. One requires Tk 50,000 to Tk 70,000 to grow seeds on one bigha of land and the yield fetches about Tk 2.0 lakh to Tk 3.0 lakh a year. Vegetable seed cultivation, however, needs more caretaking and hard labour, they added.
   ‘All the farmers of Fulgachh village are self-sufficient. They never come to me seeking government relief,’ said Mogulhaat Union Parishad chairman Habibur Rahaman Habib. ‘Fulgachh is the model village in Lalmonirhat district for farming vegetable round the year,’ he added.
   An official of Lal Teer Seed Company’s Lalmonirhat office said when they first visited Fulgachh in 2002, they found a village neglected in all aspects and the farmers whiling away their time. Vegetable farming has changed their life. ‘Our company gives them both financial help and advice on the scientist method of vegetable farming. We also purchase vegetable seeds from Fulgachh farmers at fair price,’ he added.

OPEC secretary general Abdalla Salem El-Badri said on Friday that the oil market was ‘over-supplied’ in an indication that the cartel might slash output at a weekend meeting.
   ‘The market is over-supplied,’ El-Badri said ahead of the OPEC meeting to be held on Saturday in Cairo.
   The remark appeared to suggest that the oil exporters’ cartel could cut crude production at the consultative meeting in the Egyptian capital.
   OPEC member nations have watched their revenues slide this year as oil prices slumped from record highs above 147 dollars per barrel that were set in July.
   Ministers agreed only last month to reduce production by 1.5 million barrels a day but the market has continued to slump.
   Prices nosedived last week under 50 dollars to levels last seen in early 2005 on growing concern that a global recession could ravage demand for energy, traders said.
   The Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries pumps 40 per cent of the world’s crude.
   Meanwhile on Friday, world oil prices dived by more than a dollar as the market fretted over what the OPEC producers cartel would decide.
   Light sweet crude for delivery in January slid 1.39 dollars to 53.05 dollars a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange in electronic deals.
   On London’s InterContinental Exchange, Brent North Sea crude for January dropped 71 cents to 52.42 dollars a barrel in morning trade.
   ‘Oil is on the weaker side of things again, as concerns that OPEC will not cut enough production to offset lower demand has traders dumping the futures contract,’ said BetOnMarkets.com analyst Dave Evans in London.
   Ahead of the meeting, OPEC President Chakib Khelil has downplayed the idea of an output cut being announced in the Egyptian capital.
   The cartel may wait until a scheduled policy meeting due in Algeria on December 17 before announcing any change to output, according to traders.

The Southeast Bank Limited held a workshop on ‘MICR technology for Bangladesh Automated Clearing House’ for its officials recently.
   Syed Imtiaz Hasib, deputy managing director of the bank, inaugurated the workshop, said a press release. Mohammad Masud Anwar, programmer and deputy director of Bangladesh Bank, and Mustafizur Rahman, senior vice president of Southeast Bank, were also present.

Asian economic giants Japan and India on Friday revealed fresh damage from the global financial crisis, as Russia moved again to hike interest rates to halt the outflow of capital from the country.
   Japan slipped deeper into recession with factory output tumbling 3.1 per cent and consumer spending dropping 3.8 per cent in October, official data showed.
   The figures were ‘stunningly bad,’ said Societe Generale’s chief Asia economist, Glenn Maguire.
   ‘Japan’s industrial activity is set to worsen in the near-term, perhaps by an unprecedented degree, as exports to the US have plunged over the past year,’ he warned.
   Rising economic powerhouse India, struggling with extremist attacks in the financial capital Mumbai, said its economic growth slowed to 7.6 per cent in the third quarter of 2008, from 7.9 per cent in the second.
   While it was still a respectable performance at a time when many developed economies are in recession, the slowdown in India highlights the extent to which the US-born financial crisis has spread around the world.
   The Russian central bank raised its key refinancing interest rate again to 13 per cent from 12 per cent on Friday to ‘lower the level of capital outflows and contain inflationary tendencies.’
   The global economic crisis has prompted investors to pull their cash out of developing economies like Russia that are still seen harbouring risk, to safer more established havens.
   Russian growth is forecast to be sharply down in the wake of the economic crisis and the ruble has also come under huge pressure, forcing the bank to spend tens of billions of dollars propping up its value.
   In a separate but related move, the bank allowed the ruble to lightly weaken against the dollar-euro basket that serves as its benchmark, Russian news agencies reported, citing market sources.
   There was also bad news from South Korea, where industrial production fell 2.3 per cent in October in a sign that the export-driven economy was slowing faster than expected.
   Investors mostly managed to look beyond the gloomy news, hoping that interest rate cuts and stimulus spending would eventually turn things around.
   Tokyo ended up 1.7 per cent in light trade after Thursday’s Thanksgiving holiday in the United States, while Seoul rose 1.2 per cent and Sydney jumped 4.3 per cent.
   But Shanghai finished with a loss of 2.4 per cent as investors took profits after the previous day’s strong gains.
   The main Bombay Stock Exchange opened 1.4 per cent lower Friday, a day after being forced to shut down due to a coordinated attack by gunmen across the city, which left at least 130 people dead.
   While some analysts believe stocks are now looking cheap, others see little prospect of a recovery in the current climate of fear and gloom over the global economy.
   European markets got off to a lacklustre start. In late morning trade, London dipped 0.05 per cent, Frankfurt dropped 0.89 per cent and Paris shed 1.02 per cent.
   The region continued to feel the fallout from the financial crisis.
   Britain’s Royal Bank of Scotland said the government would end up with a 57.9 per cent stake in the bank after a share issue to raise funds to help it cope with the financial crisis.
   RBS said that ordinary shareholders had agreed to take up only 0.24 per cent of the share issue, with the government then taking up the balance, as provided for in its recapitalisation plan for the British banking system.
   Last week, shareholders approved plans to raise 20 billion pounds ($29.5b) in fresh capital as part of a state rescue deal for Britain’s banking sector.
   Sweden fell into recession in the third quarter after its economy contracted 0.1 per cent for two successive quarters, the national statistics agency said on Friday.
   Sweden’s economy shrank by 0.1 per cent in the second and third quarters on a sequential basis, the SCB said, adding that it had revised downwards its second quarter figure which in August it had said was flat.
   With developed nations focused on efforts to boost their own recession-ridden economies, the World Bank urged donors not to abandon poor countries hit by the financial crisis.
   Developing countries ‘find themselves at the mercy of a crisis not of their making,’ World Bank President Robert Zoellick said ahead of a UN development conference this weekend.

The City Bank Limited focuses on ‘small and medium entrepreneurs and retail banking to widen its client base,’ said K Mahmood Sattar, managing director and chief executive officer of the bank.
   ‘We also put emphasis on corporate, investment, treasury and market risks banking services,’ he added. ‘We have restructured our core business into these four segments. The main objective behind this restructuring was simply to bring in “specialisation” in the way we deal with and serve different customer groups.’
   The City Bank’s current business model encourages and supports its growth in retail and SME banking, he said, adding that ‘the bank is very much on its way to opening a large number of independent SME centres across the country within a short time.’
   Retail banking services of the bank include deposit, loan, debit card, credit card and remittance, while SME banking services are offered in packages styled City Muldhan, City Sheba and City Shulov.
   Corporate banking services include working capital finance, trade finance, short/mid-term finance, Islamic finance, structured finance, cash management, and investment banking.
   Treasury banking services include overnight deposits, term deposits, foreign exchange, local currency spot and forward and derivatives.
   The bank, which is celebrating its 25th year of operations this year, launched a new logo and a pay-off line in July. ‘Launching of the new logo and the pay-off line of the bank is a message about the modernisation process the financial institution has been undergoing,’ said Sattar.
   City Bank currently has 83 online branches spread across the country that include a fully-fledged Islami banking branch. It has 25 ATMs of its own and ATM-sharing arrangement with a partner bank that has 225 ATMs in place.
   City Bank earned a net profit of Tk 34.35 crore in 2006-07 against previous year’s Tk 24-crore net profit, according to the DSE official website.
   As per un-audited half yearly accounts, as on June 30, 2008, the bank achieved a profit after tax of Tk 21.94 crore as against last year’s Tk 33.95-crore half yearly post-tax profit. The net turnover in the period was Tk 150.95 crore.
   City Bank is one of the oldest private commercial banks operating in Bangladesh. The bank started its journey on March 27, 1983 through opening its first branch at BB Avenue in Dhaka. The bank was listed with the Dhaka Stock Exchange on February 18 in 1986. It is also listed with the Chittagong Stock Exchange.

Black Friday’s retail shoppers hunting for holiday bargains will not be enough to stave off what is likely to become the next economic crisis. Malls from Michigan to Georgia are entering foreclosure, commercial victims of the same events poisoning the housing market.
   Hotels in Tucson, Arizona and Hilton Head, South Carolina also are about to default on their mortgages.
   That pace is expected to quicken. The number of late payments and defaults will double, if not triple, by the end of next year, according to analysts from Fitch Ratings Ltd, which evaluates companies’ credit.
   ‘We’re probably in the first inning of the commercial mortgage problem,’ said Scott Tross, a real estate lawyer with Herrick Feinstein in New Jersey.
   That is bad news for more than just property owners. When businesses go dark, employees lose jobs. Towns lose tax revenue. School budgets and social services feel the pinch.
   Companies have survived plenty of downturns, but economists see this one playing out like never before. In the past, when businesses hit rough patches, owners negotiated with banks or refinanced their loans.
   But many banks no longer hold the loans they made. Over the past decade, banks have increasingly bundled mortgages and sold them to investors. Pension funds, insurance companies, and hedge funds bought the seemingly safe securities and are now bracing for losses that could ripple through the financial system.
   ‘It’s a toxic drug and nobody knows how bad it’s going to be,’ said Paul Miller, an analyst with Friedman, Billings, Ramsey, who was among the first to sound alarm bells in the residential market.
   Unlike home mortgages, businesses don’t pay their loans over 30 years. Commercial mortgages are usually written for five, seven or 10 years with big payments due at the end. About $20 billion will be due next year, covering everything from office and condo complexes to hotels and malls.
   The retail outlook is particularly bad. Circuit City and Linens ‘n Things have sought bankruptcy protection. Home Depot, Sears, Ann Taylor and Foot Locker are closing stores.
   Those retailers typically were paying rent that was expected to cover mortgage payments. When those $20 billion in mortgages come due next year – 2010 and 2011 totals are projected to be even higher – many property owners will not have the money.
   Some will survive, but those property owners whose loans required little money up front will have less incentive to weather the storm.
   Refinancing formerly was an option, but many properties are worth less than when they were purchased. And since investors no longer want to buy commercial mortgages, banks are reluctant to write new loans to refinance those facing foreclosure.

Inflation in the 15 euro countries plunged in November to a 14-month low in the face of slumping oil prices, an official EU estimate showed on Friday, paving the way for deep interest rate cuts.
   Annual eurozone inflation dropped to 2.1 per cent this month from 3.2 per cent in October as consumer prices grew at the slowest pace since September 2007, the Eurostat data agency said.
   Down sharply from a June and July record high of 4.0 per cent, the rate also came in below economists forecasts for 2.4 per cent, as polled by Dow Jones Newswires.
   Economists said the drop set the stage for a steep cut in interest rates by the European Central Bank when it meets exceptionally in Brussels next Thursday for a monetary-policy setting meeting.
   ‘Pressure is mounting on the ECB to deliver a deeper interest rate cut next Thursday than the 50 basis point reduction from 3.25 per cent ... widely expected,’ said economist Howard Archer at consultants IHS Global Insight.
   ‘Indeed, there is a compelling case for a 100 basis point cut to 2.25 per cent,’ he said.
   Eurozone inflation has been in retreat since peaking in July as oil and other commodities prices have plummeted in the face of a sharply slowing global economy.
   Since reaching record highs above 147 dollars in July, oil prices have dropped to about 53 dollars a barrel.
   With the eurozone economy facing a deep downturn, the ECB has already cut its main rate by a half per centage point twice in the last two months, bringing the benchmark cost of borrowing to 3.25 per cent.
   ECB president Jean-Claude Trichet, who has come under fire for raising interest rates in July in the face of the then record inflation, said this week: ‘We are ready to cut interest rates.’
   The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development forecast on Tuesday that the eurozone economy would shrink 0.6 per cent in 2009 and warned recovery was unlikely before the second half of 2010.
   Consumer and business confidence in the European Union slumped in November to the lowest level in 15 years, according to a widely watched European Commission survey on Thursday.
   Adding to the gloom, Eurostat data also released on Friday showed that the eurozone unemployment rate ticked to the highest level in 21 months in October, hitting 7.7 per cent of the workforce.
   With the economy slowing sharply, Archer predicted that inflation too would remain firmly on its downward path.

More than 30,000 temporary workers in Japan will likely lose their jobs by next March, a survey showed Friday, as companies drastically cut costs to cope with the global economic slowdown.
   From October to March, 30,067 temporary workers are expected to lose their jobs, the labour ministry said.
   That compares to a total of only 2,028 regular employees who will be made unemployed during the same period, it added.
   Temporary workers are usually the first to be fired as they have less employment protection than regular employees.
   As economic conditions deteriorate around the world, Japanese businesses — particularly export-dependent manufacturers — have responded by slashing jobs to reduce costs.
   Job cuts in the manufacturing sector make up two-thirds of the expected job losses, with the number spiking in the industrial pockets of Aichi, Gifu, Tochigi, Nagano and Hiroshima prefectures, the report said.
   Aichi prefecture, where auto giant Toyota is headquartered, is expected to see 4,104 losses among temporary workers, it added.
   Mitsubishi Motors Corp earlier this week said it would cut 1,100 jobs or third of its temporary workers in Japan. Toyota Motor Corp said it plans to axe 3,000 jobs — half of its part-time workforce here.
   Mazda is scrapping 1,300 temporary jobs and Subaru-maker Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd said it will end contracts for some 800 temporary workers by the end of next month.
   Non-regular workers made up a record 36 per cent of the entire workforce in Japan in 2007, the government said in a survey earlier this year.

The BRAC Bank Limited director Nihad Kabir inaugurated Wednesday the bank’s Madhabdi branch at 236, Girls School Road, Madhabdi Bazar, Madhabdi in Narsingdi, said a press release.
   BRAC Bank chairman Muhammad A (Rumee) Ali, MD and CEO AEA Muhaimen, head of retail banking Firoz Ahmed Khan, head of direct Banking Abdur Rahman, and head of alternate banking and corporate affairs Abedur Rahman Sikder were present.

The Prime Bank Limited has opened its 67th branch at Prabartak Crossing in Chittagong on Monday.
   Saifuzzaman Chowdhury, president of Chittagong Chamber of Commerce and Industry, inaugurated the branch.
   M Ehsanul Haque, MD, of the bank, presided over the occasion. M Nader Khan, former chairman, Shahnaz Quashem and Hasina Khan, vice-chairpersons, and senior officials of the bank were also present.

The National Bank Limited opened its 103rd branch at Mudaffarganj, Laksam, Comilla recently.
   Zakaria Taher, director of the bank, inaugurated the branch at a function, said a press release.
   M Abdur Rahman Sarker, MD, and AKM Shafiqur Rahman, SEVP, of the bank, Sayeed AZM Suddaz Hossain, chairman of Mudaffarganj Union Parishad, and elites and businessmen of the area were also present on the occasion.