Criticising the NGOs’ micro-credit system, social welfare minister Enamul Huq Mostafa Shaheed Saturday said their loan distribution could not bring any remarkable change in the lives of the country’s deprived, underprivileged and the people with disability.
   ‘An economist of the country has won the Nobel Peace Prize for his micro-credit initiatives, but the question is has there been any change in the lives of the country’s poor? …this needs to be analysed,’ he told a meeting at Chittagong Circuit House.
   The meeting was arranged for exchange
   of views with representatives of the NGOs being run in the Chittagong division.
   Enamul Huq said the activities of the NGOs which work with micro-credit should be regulated. ‘The NGOs always demand various facilities from the Bangladesh Bank. But,
   they never talk about the visually and hearing impaired people, the elderly people and widows… this is very much disappointing.’
   He said implementation of various programmes undertaken by the social welfare ministry was
   being hampered because of internal conflicts of the NGOs.
   The minister told the meeting that the government was constructing six homes for elderly people in the six divisional headquarters and called upon the private entrepreneurs and NGOs to come forward to undertake such welfare activities.

Digium, one of the leading manufacturers of Internet Protocol products based on the open-source Asterisk platform, on Saturday launched its IP telephony solutions for Bangladesh market targeting IP telephony service providers, small and medium enterprises, corporate and financial sectors.
   The US-based Digium has an array of IP products and solutions tailored to meet the needs of different segment of the customers, a news release said.
   EMEM System Limited, one of the country’s fastest growing information and communications technology companies, has been appointed as the sole distributor of Digium in Bangladesh.
   Rupert Utteridge, director, sales and marketing, Digital Technique (Asia Ltd), which distributed the Digium products in Asia region, gave a presentation on various features of the solutions at the launching programme held in a city hotel.
   The Digium products include Switchvox, Asterisk Appliance 50, Digium Analog and Digital board and B410P. All are feature riches, cost effective and easy to upgrade, the release said.
   Addressing the launching ceremony, EMEM Systems chief executive officer Abdul Mutaleb said the Digium products were very cost effective with the ability of easily upgrade when the business expand.
   He said the IP telephony service providers would be benefited a lot from adopting the Digium solutions as the nascent industry has to upgrade their infrastructure gradually in a cost-effective manner when their business would grow over time.
   EMEM Systems director Syed Samiul Huq said EMEM was working persistently to introduce innovative technologies to Bangladesh and investing immensely to build a pool of trained Engineers in the field of IP technology.
   He said Bangladesh was yet to exploit the wide range of benefits from IP based technology where Digium Asterisk pledges to play a pivotal role in the years to come.
   The Bangladesh Telecommunications Regulatory Commission recently awarded over 30 IP telephony licences enabling the ISPs to introduce IP based voice services for the first time which promises to bring in more features and benefits to the telephone users.

The United States is beginning to lay the initial groundwork for talks to forge a free trade agreement with Southeast Asia, ahead of president Barack Obama’s maiden trip to the region.
   A senior US senator will propose a resolution on Tuesday encouraging Obama administration officials to initiate the negotiations, warning about competition from China and other powers who have already sealed pacts with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
   ‘The United States should proceed to develop a comprehensive strategy toward engaging ASEAN in serious FTA discussions,’ said Senator Dick Lugar, the Republican party leader in the powerful Senate foreign relations committee.
   Lugar admitted that the free trade endeavour would be ‘complex and have possible challenges to negotiation given the varying levels of economic development and open markets among ASEAN countries.’
   But he pointed out that ‘China, India, Australia, New Zealand and South Korea have already finalised FTAs with ASEAN and are sharpening a competitive edge over the US in Southeast Asia.’
   Ongoing trade sanctions with military-ruled Myanmar, one of 10 ASEAN member states, should not deter US efforts to reach an FTA with the rest of the grouping, which also include Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, Lugar said.
   Lugar’s resolution prodding the office of the United States Trade Representative to pursue the free trade agreement is expected to attract support from Democratic party senators, congressional sources said.
   Obama will hold his first-ever official summit between a US president and leaders of the 10 ASEAN member states when he is in Singapore for the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in mid-November.
   The United States has recently reversed policy on contacts with Myanmar, holding the highest-level talks with junta officials in nearly a decade, but has warned it will not lift sanctions until democracy is introduced.
   ‘Obama’s possible meeting with ASEAN leaders while in Singapore will reflect the significance of the US-ASEAN relationship,’ Lugar said.
   According to the resolution, a copy of which was made available to the AFP, two-way US-ASEAN annual trade was a whopping $180 billion.
   In 2006, Lugar introduced and won approval of legislation establishing the position of US ambassador to ASEAN and Obama’s predecessor George Bush appointed the envoy in 2008.
   The United States at present has a Trade and Investment Framework Agreement with ASEAN, a precursor to a full free-trade pact.
   Southeast Asia, with a population of 560 million, is America’s fifth-largest trading partner behind only Canada, Mexico, China and the European Union.
   American exports to the region have grown steadily to $68.4 billion in 2008, about the same as US exports to China and three-times larger than American exports to India, according to figures from the US-ASEAN Business Council.
   In economic terms, China’s trade with the region saw a 20-fold increase between 2003 and 2008 to $179 billion, while the US saw just a three-fold rise, according to ASEAN figures.
   But the US maintained a slightly larger share of total ASEAN commerce than China.
   The United States at present has a free trade agreement with Singapore and has been holding talks with Malaysia for a similar pact.

Dhaka Stock Exchange saw last week bull continued to run on the bourse, thanks to a significant participation of institutional investors, market operators said.
   The DSE general index, the bourse’s key index, added 135.80 points, or 4.35 per cent, in the week to the previous week’s closing to finish at 3,259.04, its all-time high, on Thursday.
   The index rewrote three times its record high in the last three trading days.
   Most institutional investors displayed strong trading activities in recent weeks, stockbrokers said. Institutional buying spree resulted in a surge in the market though the subscription of a Tk 486.08-crore initial public offering of Grameenphone was held for local investors in the week, they said.
   The subscription of Grameenphone’s IPO, the largest in Bangladesh’s capital market history, ended Thursday for local investors. For non-resident Bangladeshis, the subscription, however, will continue until October 18.
   Fifteen selected banks and the Investment Corporation of Bangladesh witnessed rush since its subscription began last Sunday, bank sources said.
   The DSE all shares price index gained 107.64 points, or 4.10 per cent, in last week to finish at 2,732.56, while the DSE20 index of blue chips rose 78.92 points, or 3.59 per cent, to close at 2,279.10.
   The DSE daily average turnover last week increased to Tk 901.73 crore from the previous week’s Tk 683.25 crore.
   Gainers outnumbered the losers as out of 245 issues traded, 166 advanced, 78 declined, one remained unchanged. Seven issues were not traded in the week.
   State-owned Jamuna Oil Company was the week’s top turnover leader with shares worth Tk 210.89 crore traded. It was followed by Titas Gas with Tk 204.14 crore.

The next round of Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement negotiations will be held in South Korea in November, the US Trade Representative said Friday.
   The USTR, in a statement, said the talks will be held November 4-6 and will cover ‘enforcement procedures in the digital environment, criminal procedures to deal with counterfeiting and piracy, and transparency issues.’
   The United States has been working with Australia, Canada, the European Union, Japan, Mexico, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea and Switzerland to hammer out an agreement.

PC maker Dell Inc has agreed to promote Salesforce.com Inc software products to its US customers, as it tries to expand revenue from higher-margin services business.
   The tie-up, announced Friday, will allow Salesforce.com to reach Dell’s small- and mid-sized US corporate customers, a market it wants to expand its presence in, while Dell shores up its services offering.

The first dealers’ conference of IT company Eurostar Bangladesh was held at a local hotel in Dhaka on Saturday.
   Diamondtel of Sylhet district was adjudged the best dealer while Shahriar Telecom of Chandpur was awarded for being the best in attaining annual sales target.
   Eurostar’s chairman Tanveer Adnan, managing director Tahseen Harun, general manager Shamim Ahmed and assistant general manager SM Mehdi were, among other, who spoke on the occasion.
   Speaking at the conference, the dealers said mobile accessories including batteries and auto-chargers imported by the company have become very popular among the consumers all over the country.

The National Board of Revenue is going to set up a ‘Tax Information Management and Research Centre’, which will act as its think-thank.
   On August 16, the NBR formed a committee with the DG of the Central Intelligence Cell as its head to work out the activities and jurisdiction of the ‘Tax Information Management and Research Centre’ as proposed by the finance minister in his budget speech.
   The committee was actually given two weeks’ time for submitting its report by August 30. But in its first meeting on August 23, the committee members sought three months more to submit the report.
   According to a member of the committee, the ‘Tax Information Management and Research Centre’ will act as the think-thank of the NBR.
   Once set up, the centre will be able to provide more appropriate information to the NBR regarding any government decision on revenue matters.
   ‘In every developed country of the world, there are such centres which help the government take decisions about revenue matters,’ he said.
   He said the centre would evaluate the tax measurers, particularly the facilities given to the taxpayers or industries.
   NBR officials said the government decided to enhance the tax-GDP ratio, which is very poor in the country — around 8, the lowest in this subcontinent.

Rajshahi Krishi Unnayan Bank has disbursed Tk 186.55 crore as loan for boosting rural economy as well as generating employment through enhancing agricultural and non- agricultural production in Rajshahi division during the first three months of the current 2009-10 fiscal year.
   Side by side with the disbursement, the bank has also realised Tk 60.20 crore along with Tk 24.38 crore from the classified and other outstanding loans during the same period.
   RAKUB managing director M Fazlul Haque told the news agency that the bank had set a target of disbursing Tk 1,035 crore as crop loan and recovery of Tk 763.83 crore including Tk 290 crore from classified loan through its 364 branches in all the 16 districts under the division.
   ‘We are very much positive to attain the disbursement and recovery targets through our quality and pro-people banking services,’ he added.
   He said the specialised bank has been disbursing the loan for crop production, fish cultivation, rearing livestock, purchasing agriculture and irrigation equipment, setting up small and medium scale industrial units and poverty alleviation.
   Besides, he said the loan disbursement sectors and sub sectors also included production of paddy, wheat, sugarcane, potato, ginger, turmeric, maize, tea and vegetables, establishment of poultry and dairy farms, fish culture and fish- hatchery, small and medium industry and agro-based industry along with purchasing modern agro- machinery.
   The bank started its journey on March 15, 1987 with 253 branches and credit balance of Tk 563.83 crore along with Taka 51.83 crore as deposit.

Wall Street’s long-running rally has gotten boost from the first batch of corporate earnings reports, but faces another barrage of results in the coming week that will test its momentum.
   Investors will see dozens more third-quarter earnings reports from key firms, especially in the banking sector, that could provide clues on the health of the corporate sector and the overall economy.
   In the week to Friday, the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average vaulted 3.98 per cent to 9,864.94, reaching its highest level in over a year.
   The Standard & Poor’s 500 broad-market index rallied 4.51 per cent to 1,071.49, just a fraction off a 12-month high, while the technology-heavy Nasdaq composite surged 4.45 per cent to 2,139.28.
   The market was energized in the past week by positive earnings surprises, notably from aluminum maker Alcoa, traditionally the first of the blue chips to report results.
   Alcoa managed a profit of $77 million, surprising analysts who had expected a fourth consecutive quarterly loss. The group also offered a better-than-expected outlook for the coming months, boosting hopes for recovery from the global recession.
   ‘We see some signs that things are getting better, not getting great, but stabilizing, and that’s what this third quarter is all about,’ said Marc Pado, analyst at Cantor Fitzgerald.
   He said Alcoa’s report was especially welcome because ‘aluminum is a product critical for manufacturing, so it bodes well for the industrial sector.’
   Stephen Auth at Federated Investments said he sees more upside surprises on the economy and earnings.
   ‘Our sense remains that investors continue to underestimate the strength of the economic recovery which is already upon us,’ Auth said in a noted to clients.
   Auth said economic activity is rebounding, housing is stabilizing and that jobs will come back slowly despite the current trend of rising unemployment.
   ‘We expect this better-than-consensus economic news to drive earnings and stocks higher through year-end, with equities set to enter what we’d call a third leg of the market recovery,’ he said.
   ‘Despite the 50 per cent run off the market’s March lows, we are still down 30 to 35 per cent off the highs of 2007, and we think there is still room for stocks to rise further, perhaps as far as 1,200 on the S&P 500.’
   The market was helped in the past week by a rate hike announced in Australia, which offered a signal that the global economy is emerging from recession.
   Robert Kavcic at BMO Capital Markets said that a rally in response to a rate hike ‘might seem counterintuitive on the surface,’ but added: ‘it’s actually normal behaviour for stocks to cheer rate hikes coming out of a recession.’
   ‘For equity investors, the benefit of strengthening economic and earnings growth outweighs the cost of higher interest rates this early in the cycle,’ he said.
   Still, some fear the rally has carried stocks too far, making a correction inevitable.
   ‘Our short-term concerns centre around our belief that the market has gotten ahead of the recovery and more and more economic reports have fallen short of expectations,’ said Scott Marcouiller at Wells Fargo Advisors.
   ‘We don’t see serious downside, but do believe it is prudent for investors to use caution and withhold new buying.’
   The coming week will provide investors with information on the banking sector, struggling to emerge from the horrific financial crisis. JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Bank of America and Goldman Sachs will reveal results for the past quarter.
   Other firms reporting include Google, IBM and General Electric.
   Reports on US retail sales, industrial production and inflation also loom.
   Bonds were hammered as the market shifted its expectations on economic recovery.
   The yield on the 10-year Treasury bond yield jumped to 3.384 per cent from 3.221 per cent a week earlier and that on the 30-year bond increased to 4.227 per cent from 4.011 per cent. Bond yields and prices move in opposite directions

Oil prices rose on Friday as the International Energy Agency said crude demand should grow at the end of this year and in 2010 as the global economy recovers.
   Prices had fallen earlier in the day as the IEA also warned that current oil demand was ‘in the doldrums’ and forecast that prices would next year fail to rise much higher compared with current levels.
   New York’s main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in November climbed 20 cents to $71.89 a barrel after falling by a similar amount earlier Friday.
   Brent North Sea crude for November gained 37 cents to $70.14 in afternoon London trading.
   Oil demand is firming but the global market is still weak, trapped in a bull-bear conflict over how a groggy recovery from the global crisis will affect energy consumption next year, the International Energy Agency said on Friday.
   Pointing to an oil price of about $75 a barrel next year, the IEA warned that immediate oil demand was ‘in the doldrums.’
   However, the rate at which demand was shrinking was ‘clearly falling’ and demand in the fourth quarter would probably show an increase over 12 months, it said.
   Demand for oil has plunged amid the world economic downturn, the most severe since the 1930s. Oil prices tumbled from historic highs of more than $147 in July 2008 to about $32 in December because of the global recession but have since won back ground on recovery hopes.
   Oil prices closed up more than two dollars a barrel on Thursday as investors sought refuge in commodities amid a weakening dollar and as economic recovery won a lift in the United States, traders said.
   Alcoa surprisingly swung into profit in the three months to September 30 after three quarters of losses in a row, the US aluminium giant announced Wednesday.

US President Barack Obama on Friday accused big business and its lobbyists of trying to kill his bid to pass a new law shielding US consumers from ruinous predatory lending practices.
   The president spoke out in favor of his proposed Consumer Financial Protection Agency, part of a wider regulatory reform effort designed to rein in Wall Street abuses, which is currently being considered in Congress.
   ‘Predictably, a lot of the banks and big financial firms don’t like the idea of a consumer agency very much,’ Obama said at the White House, hours after he was named as this year’s surprise recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize.
   ‘In fact, the US Chamber of Commerce is spending millions on an ad campaign to kill it,’ Obama told an audience of members of Congress, local state officials, finance industry workers and community leaders.
   Obama denied claims by critics that the proposed agency would restrict consumer choice and innovation, saying it would set ground rules so that credit card, mortgage and finance firms could not confuse customers with outrageous terms and conditions.
   ‘But all this hasn’t stopped the big financial firms and their lobbyists from mobilizing against change,’ he said.
   ‘They’re doing what they always do—descending on Congress and using every bit of influence they have to maintain the status quo that has maximized their profits at the expense of American consumers.
   ‘We have already seen and lived the consequences of what happens when there is too little accountability on Wall Street and too little protection for Main Street, and I will not allow this country to go back there.’
   The US Chamber of Commerce rejects Obama’s complaints, and warns that the proposed reforms will create an unwieldy federal agency that will make the problems worse for consumers and business.
   The president wants Congress to act this year on what is billed as the most sweeping financial regulatory reform since the 1930s, despite a crush of other business.
   His proposals for greater regulation would give the Federal Reserve expanded powers to oversee regulation on all finance firms or banks that pose a significant systemic risk to the wider financial infrastructure.
   They would introduce new discipline and transparency into financial markets and would enable investors to better ride out the failure of one or more large financial institution.

The biggest risk for investors in technology, with stock prices up a whopping 55 per cent this year, is they might be just a little too happy.
   All the buzz isn’t without cause: Corporate technology spending could be set to rebound next year, cost-cutting is paying dividends, and dealmaking is back in a big way.
   Those good vibrations will be tested next week, when some of the biggest names in technology, including Intel Corp, Google Inc, and IBM, post quarterly earnings.
   ‘Clearly everybody expects beats in the September quarter,’ said Broadpoint AmTech analyst Brian Marshall. ‘People are expecting to see positive business trends unfold and they’re looking for nice optimistic guidance in the December’ quarter.
   Such outsized expectations could trip up the industry. Reporting earnings that beat forecasts by, say, a penny per share may not keep investors happy, particularly if companies count on cost-cutting rather than revenue growth to get there.
   The same goes for a solid, but unspectacular, outlook for the fourth quarter or 2010.
   Call it the Blackberry scenario. Last month, the maker of the device, Research In Motion, reported quarterly profit of $1.03 a share, compared with analysts average forecast of $1 a share. But revenue came up short, its outlook disappointed investors, and the stock got crushed, dropping more than 16 per cent.
   For the broader industry, one of the main concerns is where revenue growth will be found. Overall corporate spending on technology is still at much lower levels than last year, and spending in Europe remains a big worry.
   Indeed, only a handful of companies are expected to post revenue growth, including Apple Inc, Google, Verizon Communications Inc, and Amazon.com Inc.
   Expectations for the technology industry have nonetheless improved over the past three months. In July, analysts expected tech companies to post a 20 per cent decline in third-quarter earnings from a year earlier. Now, they expect earnings to slide just 14 per cent, according to data from Thomson Reuters.
   Stock prices underscore the optimism. The Morgan Stanley Hi-Tech index of major tech stocks is up around 55 per cent this year and 19 per cent since the beginning of July. While the Standard & Poor’s 500 has kept pace over the past three months, it is still up a more modest 18 per cent this year.
   Most likely, only hefty earnings beats or rosy forecasts will keep that sort of momentum going, analysts said.
   Along with quarterly earnings, investors will be keen to hear any commentary on consumer demand ahead of the holidays and about a hardware refresh cycle by businesses that is expected to begin next year.
   Helped by healthier consumer spending, global semiconductor sales rose 5 per cent in August from July. That marked a sixth consecutive month of sequential growth.

Hummer, the off-road vehicle that once epitomised America’s love for hulking trucks, is now in the hands of a Chinese heavy equipment maker.
   General Motors Co. and Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery Corp. finally signed the much-anticipated deal for GM to sell the brand on Friday.
   Tengzhong will get an 80 per cent stake in the company, while Hong Kong investor Suolang Duoji, who indirectly owns a big stake in Tengzhong through an investment company, will get 20 per cent. The investors will also get Hummer’s nationwide dealer network.
   Financial terms were not disclosed, although a person briefed on the deal said the sale price was around $150 million. The person did not want to be identified because the terms were being kept private. GM’s bankruptcy filing last summer said that the brand with military roots could bring in $500 million or more.
   Suolang Duoji also is the controlling shareholder and chairman of Lumena Resources Corp., a Hong Kong listed mining company.
   GM and Tengzhong said in a statement that the transaction still must be approved by the US and Chinese governments. Chinese regulators initially expressed reservations about Tengzhong’s ability to run such an enterprise.
   Hummer’s current management team will stay with the new company, which will be headquartered either in Detroit or suburban Auburn Hills, Mich.
   James Taylor, the GM executive who has run Hummer recently, will remain as its chief executive officer.
   Taylor said in an interview with The Associated Press that he knows resurrecting the brand will be difficult, but the key will be quickly rolling out more fuel-efficient models that get over 20 mpg.
   ‘I’m not in any kind of denial that we have a very steep uphill challenge in front of us,’ Taylor said.
   Hummer, he said, has been in a state ‘suspended animation’ since June 2008 when GM announced it would be reviewed for sale or closure. Since then, its future has been uncertain and it got no marketing support or new products. Financing for leases, a big part of its luxury market, also dried up, Taylor said.
   Still, GM sold 1,000 Hummers in some months, proving that buyers are out there.
   ‘There’s still a loyal customer base underneath there that loves Hummer,’ he said.
   Hummer hopes to keep buying fuel-efficient engines and transmissions from GM, but can seek them elsewhere, Taylor said.
   He said the brand has been unfairly tagged as a symbol of the American gas guzzler, saying other vehicles get worse mileage.
   He wants to make sure ‘at least we aren’t a victim of misinformation that we stand alone as the ultimate bad guy in the space, which we aren’t.’
   Hummer hit the streets for civilian use in 1992 while owned by AM General LLC, which makes Humvees for the US Army, and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger was among the first customers.
   The brand, whose smallest model gets 16 miles per gallon (14.7 liters per 100 kilometers) in combined city and highway driving, sold well until the middle part of this decade when fuel prices began to rise. Sales peaked at 71,524 in 2006.
   But only 8,193 Hummers have been sold in the US through the first nine months of the year. That’s down 64 per cent from a year earlier. And only 426 Hummers were sold nationwide last month, according to Autodata Corp.
   GM, which spent 40 days in bankruptcy protection during the summer and has received about $50 billion in US government aid, also plans to sell its Saab brand and scrap Pontiac and Saturn as it tries to streamline its operations.
   The Hummer deal is a victory for GM, which saw a similar agreement to sell the Saturn brand blow up at the last minute. Auto dealership magnate Roger Penske’s bid fell through just before the deal was to close last week when a contract to make vehicles for Saturn was rejected by the Renault board.
   The company wants to focus on four core brands: Chevrolet, Cadillac, Buick and GMC.

A Japanese menswear company has begun selling an ‘anti-swine flu’ business suit that it says can reduce the risk of catching the virus.
   The wool suit is coated with titanium dioxide, which breaks down the virus molecules on contact under ultraviolet light, Haruyama Trading Co. said.
   The material, which can also reduce odours such as cigarette smoke, will keep its anti-virus properties even after being dry cleaned more than 20 times, the company said.
   It will go on sale at 272 stores across Japan on Saturday, with a price tag of 52,290 yen (589 dollars), following its launch in Tokyo on Thursday, said company spokesman Ryugo Yamamoto.
   The company had initially aimed to develop a dirt- and odour-resistant suit, ‘but laboratory experiments proved that molecules of viruses were actually dissolved three hours after they adhered to the fabric,’ he said.
   Japanese people are known for being extremely hygiene-conscious, with thousands of people on the street wearing masks when the first Japanese victims tested positive for swine flu in May.
   Students and even adult workers are instructed how to effectively wash their hands and gargle, while antibacterial goods ranging from men’s socks to a computer mouse are also popular.

US banking giant Citigroup has agreed to sell its oil trading unit Phibro LLC to Occidental Petroleum for some 250 million dollars, the companies said Friday.
   Citi, which has received massive US government aid to help it overcome losses in the financial crisis, said the sale would be at ‘net asset value’ and that the proceeds would be ‘not material’ to earnings.
   The deal would close in the fourth quarter pending approvals.
   ‘The decision to sell Phibro was the outcome of an evaluation of a variety of alternatives and is consistent with Citi’s core strategy of a client-centered business model,’ the bank said.
   ‘The sale of Phibro does not affect Citi’s client-facing commodities business lines, which will continue to operate and serve the needs of Citi’s clients throughout the world.’
   Occidental said its net investment would be around 250 million dollars for Phibro, which is a trader in oil and gas.
   ‘Phibro does not trade in any exotic derivatives or hold any level three type assets,’ Occidental said.
   Phibro’s management team and its employees will remain with the company after closing, according to Occidental
   It added that ‘significant portions of current and future bonuses will be deferred and retained by Phibro and paid out in future years.’
   According to the Wall Street Journal, Citi has been under pressure to unload the unit because of a 100 million-dollar annual pay package for Phibro head Andrew Hall.

United Commercial Bank Limited has recently joined OMNIBUS, a platform of shared ATM (automated teller machine) and POS (point of sales) networks led by BRAC Bank.
   From now on, customers of UCBL can use shared network of over 273 ATMs of OMNIBUS across the country, a news release said.
   OMNIBUS is a facility that combines the ATM and POS networks of member institutions through a combined network of over 273 ATMs, 1,200 POS terminals and overall ATM card base of 1 million.
   United Commercial Bank deputy managing director Shafiqul Alam and BRAC Bank deputy managing director Syed Mahbubur Rahman signed an agreement on behalf of their respective sides at a ceremony held in Dhaka.
   United Commercial Bank managing director M Shahjahan Bhuiyan and BRAC Bank managing director and chief executive officer AEA Muhaimen were present.

ONE Bank has recently opened an ATM booth in the Kakrail commercial area in Dhaka.
   The booth has been set up on the premises of the Kakrail branch of ONE Bank, a news release said.
   ONE Bank managing director Farman R Chowdhury inaugurated the booth. Senior officials of the bank were present on the occasion.

Standard Chartered Bank has recently received the bdjobs.com ‘Best Employer Award 2008’ in bank and financial institution category by bdjobs.com, the largest job portal in the country, a news release said.
   The selection of this award winning organisation has been based on a perception survey participated by 4,514 bdjobs.com users.
   Standard Chartered Bank chief executive officer Osman Morad received the award from bdjobs.com chairman Ahmad Islam Muqsit at a ceremony held in Dhaka.