Uttara Bank Limited

Uttara Bank Limited is one of the largest and oldest private sector commercial bank in Bangladesh. It was set up as a scheduled bank of the Eastern Banking Corporation in East Pakistan in 1965 and Corporation started banking on 22 June of the same year. It became a member of the Dhaka Clearing House on 17 September 1965. At the time of establishment Eastern Banking Corporation had a paid up capital of Tk 1.42 million and deposit resources of about Tk 10 million. It was the only scheduled bank established with capital raised entirely from the small income group of people of East Pakistan. Eastern Banking Corporation was nationalised under the Bangladesh Banks (Nationalisation) Order 1972 and took rename Uttara Bank with 95% of its share capital. At that time the bank had 182 branches. The government retracted and allowed it to operate as a private bank. It was transformed into a limited company on 15 September 1983. On 31 December 2000, the authorised capital of the bank was Tk 10000 million. Its paid up capital was Tk 5019 million. The bank is listed with both Dhaka and Chittagong stock exchange.

The management of the bank is vested in a 15-member board of directors consisting of a chairman, a vice Chairman and 12 directors. The managing director is the chief executive assisted by a deputy managing director and 2 assistant managing directors. With two corporate offices and 11 divisions at its headquarter banking activities of Uttara Bank Limited in 241 branches are supervised through its 12 zonal offices in different parts of the country.

Basic Facts and Economic Indicators (In Million Taka)

Indicators	2018	2019	2020
Authorized Capital	6000	6000	10000
Paid up Capital	4000.8	4080.8	5019.4
Reserved Fund	10781.4	11581.4	12449.7
Deposits	153057.8	156921.1	181275.5
a) Call Deposits	67855.2	64832.2	71189.6
b) Term Deposits	85202.6	92088.9	11085.9
Loans and Advances	118789.7	124670.7	133854
Investment	28669.3	29903.1	31347.3
Total Asset	190029.9	193161.6	222600.2
Total Income	17097.5	17225.2	15732.3
Total Expenditure	13186	12418.9	11850
Foreign Currency Trading	111930.3	112279	112352.4
a) Export	17115.7	23322.2	61594.2
b) Import	56018	56307.7	26022.1
c) Remittance	38796.6	32649.1	24736.1
Total manpower	3527	3515	3801
a) Officers	2958	3018	2897
b) Staff	569	497	904
Correspondent Banks	536	526	380
Total Branches (in numbers)	235	239	241
a) Domestic	235	239	241
b) Overseas	0	0	0
Agriculture Credit
Loan Disbursed	1726.8	2092.7	2978.2
Realised	1116.3	2448.4	2060.8
Industrial Credit
Loan Disbursed	37278.6	18268.6	31691.2
Realsied	34518.4	38449.6	29642.1
Loan Outstanding by Sector
Agriculture and Fisheries and Forestry	2805.5	2423.7	3398.1
Industry	10475.6	6624.2	8624.1
Trade and Commerce	52750.3	50942.6	54164.2
Poverty Reduction	159.3	3.5
CSR	92.9	38.2	79.2

Source Government of Bangladesh, Ministry of Finance, Banking and Financial Institution Division, Barshik Protibedon [Annual Report on Banks and Financial Institutions], 2019-20 and 2020-21.

Uttara Bank performs all traditional commercial banking functions. It renders agency services to the government in food procurement and collection of government revenue through the network of its branches all over the country. The bank has correspondent relationships with 662 foreign banks/bank offices and 65 exchange houses. Of them Arabian Exchange Company in Doha, Qatar is being operated under bank’s own management and supervision. On the other hand wage earners from any place of the world can remit their money to Bangladesh through Money Gram Company of USA under a protocol signed between Uttara Bank and the Money Gram. Money so remitted is transferred to the beneficiaries accounts quickly through 241 branches of the bank.

With the objective of attracting the Bangladeshi wage earners abroad and the non-resident foreigners to invest in Bangladesh, the bank offered them the opportunity to open Non-resident Foreign Currency Deposit (NFCD) account, Foreign Currency Current Deposit (FCCD) account, Wage Earners Development Bond (WEDB) and Non-resident Investment Taka Account (NRITA). For this purposes the bank established Home Remittance Cell (SRC). The bank has some other schemes to induce the wage earners to invest their savings in the securities market of the country. Any Bangladeshi national can open Resident Foreign Currency Deposit (RFCD) account with any authorised branch of Uttara Bank to retain excess of foreign travel quota, or foreign exchange earning. The bank has earned a reputation and confidence of the wage earners in successfully transmitting foreign income to their beneficiaries promptly and without hassles. Remittances fell from 32649 million in 2019 to Tk 24,736 million in 2020 due to Covid 19. Money remitted from any corner of world is ascertained to be deposited in the account of the recipient within two hours of its arrival under Express Payment Scheme of Uttara Bank. Clients who have no account in the bank can receive remittance in cash in the counter through their passports, driving licenses, remittance cards, voter ID cards and credit cards under its Instant Cash Scheme. Besides, the bank delivers a draft dispatched by a money sending company, to the address of the recipient and pays him the equivalent money of the foreign currency under Instant Draft Scheme.

E-mail and Internet connections are available in almost all the branches of the bank including headquarters to speed up foreign exchange transactions. SWIFT system is available in 38 branches and international division. It has introduced Q-Cash, UBL-ATM Debit Card through which the customer can draw cash and transfer money within 24 hours. It has an individual ATM booth. This service of the bank is operated all over the country through 121 Q-cash ATM booths and all ATM booths of BRAC Bank. Bank has introduced Nari Swanirvar Rin Prokalpa to make the women entrepreneurs self-supporting.

The bank is actively associated with syndicated financing to innovate both domestic and foreign investments in Bangladesh. Bank has participated in syndicated lending to BRAC, Dhaka Telephone Company Limited, Rankstel Limited, BSRM Steels Limited, Grameenphone Limited, Warid Telecome Limited, Sheba Telecom Limited, Venture Capital Energy Limited, Akber Composit Limited, Rising Spinning Limited, Malancha Holding Limited, Banga Builders Limited etc. To meet the credit demand of small income group of rural and the urban area and to create employment for jobless youths and young women, the bank has introduced some special CREDIT facilities. Bank is channeling special credit through its Bhagalpur branch in Kishoreganj district in dairy and poultry products to create job for the poor segment population of the area. Bank has been maintaining a special marketing outlet Uttaran since 1996, which is becoming popular among the buyers of marginal income.

In 2020, bank deposits accounted for 1.2 percent of total banking sector deposits and loans and advances accounted for 1.1 per cent of total banking sector loans and advances. The average interest rate differential between June 2020 based deposits and loans and advances was 4.9 percent. [Muhammad Abdul Mazid]