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Standard Chartered Bank a banking company chartered in England by the Royal Charter 1853 and headquartered in London. The bank started its operation in Bangladesh in 1948 through establishing a branch at Dhaka and expanded its operations by opening new branches and widening areas of activity as well as banking facilities. Number of branches of the bank in Bangladesh stood at 6 including its off-shore unit in the export processing zone area at Savar near the Dhaka city. The bank is a pioneer in establishing the ATM network in Bangladesh to provide 24-hour banking facilities to its customers. The bank also opened non-branch-banking booths at Tejgaon in Dhaka and Nasirabad in Chittagong. On 31 December 2000, capital and reserves of the bank in Bangladesh stood at Tk 803.2 million. The value of all its assets excluding off-balance-sheet items was Tk 15,573.7 million. Its total investments in government securities and prize bonds were Tk 2,012.3 million. The off-balance-sheet items accounted for Tk 25,674.34 million. Lending assets of the bank have substantially increased every year and stood at Tk 10,004.22 million on 31 December 2000. Loans and advances of the bank were mostly in medium, large and small scale industries, exports and import financing, housing, working capital, trade and commerce and other corporate lending. Interest rates charged by the bank on its different types of loans and advances varied between 8% and 19.5%. A large portion of the bank's lending assets became non-performing and was classified, which degraded the quality of its assets and lowered their earning capacity. In 2000, compulsory provisions maintained by the bank for classified loans amounted to Tk 360.7 million. The total deposits at the bank on 31 December 2000 were Tk 14,869.84 million. Interest rates offered by the bank on deposit holdings varied between 4.5% and 7.5%. The bank has extensive involvement in foreign exchange business and in 2000, the amount of such dealing in terms of local currency stood at Tk 56,994 million which comprised export servicing Tk 18,408 million, import financing Tk 20,180 million and remittance facilities Tk 18,406 million. On 31 December 2000, the balance of funds of the bank with other banks and financial institutions in both local and foreign currencies stood at Tk 2,153.03 million. That year the bank earned a net profit of Tk 513.5 million. The chief executive of the bank in Bangladesh is appointed by its head office in London. In 2001, the bank had a total of 221-member work force in the country and its administration is accountable to its Middle Eastern and South Asia Regional Office at Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. In April 2000, Standard Chartered Bank PLC bought the global banking business of the ANZ Grindlays Bank Plc from the ANZ Group, following which the branches of ANZ Grindlays Bank Plc in Bangladesh became units of the Standard Chartered Grindlays Bank Limited. Bangladesh operations of Standard Chartered Grindlays Bank has merged with Standard Chartered Bank on 1 January 2003, since when the combined bank has become known as Standard Chartered Bank. [S M Mahfuzur Rahman]
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