City Bank Limited, The

City Bank Limited, The is one of the oldest private commercial banks operating in Bangladesh. The bank started its operations on 28 March 1983 with an authorised capital of Tk 200 million divided into 2,000,000 ordinary shares of Tk 100 each and paid up capital of Tk 34 million, of which Tk 30 million was paid up by its promoters and the remaining amount by the government. In 2009, the bank's paid up capital rose to Tk 1750 million and share holding capital rose to Tk 1366 million, of which Tk 683 million was subscribed by the sponsors/promoters and the remaining TK. 683 million by the general public.

A 12-member board of directors including the chairman and a vice-chairman runs the management of the bank. Three Deputy Managing Directors, seven head of departments, assist the Managing Director and the Chief Executive. It had 6 regional offices established at the 6 divisional towns/cities.

Basic facts and economic indicators (in million Taka).

Indicators	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009
Authorised Capital	1750	1750	1750	1750	1750	1750
Paid up Capital	480	720	1080	1188	1366	1571
Reserved Fund	937	1238	1451	1686	2944	4293
Deposits	22237	30648	39572	40540	45034	62384
a) Call Deposits	4843	5762	6484	8324	7956	9532
b) Term Deposits	17394	24886	33088	32216	37078	52852
Loans and Advance	17028	23326	30789	26788	34421	39801
Investment	3161	3648	6405	7551	9132	10586
Total Asset	26376	35304	47446	48755	57115	76467
Total Income	2708	3477	5217	5807	6673	8040
Total Expenditure	1786	2228	3723	4551	4918	5784
Foreign Currency Trading	32576	43375	68779	44392	55488	60466
a) Export	12199	18219	28210	19151	14766	13815
b) Import	17910	21363	32096	20309	30894	28718
c) Remittance	2467	3793	8473	4932	9828	17933
Total Manpower	1803	1829	1989	1991	2094	2424
a) Officers	1210	1223	1378	1397	1554	1863
b) Staff	593	606	611	594	540	561
Correspondents Banks	410	410	483	496	501	513
Total Branches (in numbers)	77	77	78	83	83	97
a) Domestic	77	77	78	83	83	97
b) Overseas	-	-	-	-	-	-
Agriculture Credit
Loan Disbursed	142	171	3308	232	-	150
Realised	1	1	803	-	2	217
Industrial Credit:
Loan Disbursed	3053	147	3055	3998	8465	7801
Realsied	517	-	855	2872	3824	6007
Loan Outstanding by Sector
Agriculture and Fisheries	142	171	147	232	59	152
Industry	2423	3567	4889	5568	6624	13524
Trade and Commerce	7995	7607	7947	7226	14339	16437
Poverty Reduction	-	-	-	-	-	233

Source Government of Bangladesh, Ministry of Finance, Banking and Financial Institution Division, Bank o Arthik Prothisthan Samuher Karjaboli [Annual Report on Banks and Financial Institutions], 2004-05 to 2009-10.

The bank conducts all types of commercial banking activities. Core businesses of the bank include deposit mobilization, lending and foreign exchange dealings.

City Bank is among the very few local banks which do not follow the traditional, decentralised, geographically managed, branch based business or profit model. Instead the bank manages its business and operation vertically from the head office through 4 distinct business divisions namely, Corporate and Investment Banking; Retail Banking (including Cards); SME Banking; and Treasury and Market Risks.

Under a real-time online banking platform, these 4 business divisions are supported at the back by a robust IT-based service delivery setup. Such centralised business segment based business and operating model ensure specialised treatment and services to the bank's different customer segments.

The bank currently has 87 online branches and 10 SME service centers spread across the country that including an Islami Banking branch. Besides these traditional delivery points, the bank is also very active in the alternative delivery area. It currently has 46 ATMs of its own; and ATM sharing arrangement with a partner bank that has more than 550 ATMs in place; SMS Banking; Interest Banking etc. It already started its Customer Call Center operation.

City Bank is the first bank in Bangladesh to have issued Dual Currency Credit Card. The bank is a principal member of VISA international and it issues both Local Currency (Taka) and Foreign Currency (US Dollar) card limits in a single plastic. VISA Debit Card is another popular product which the bank is pushing hard in order to ease out the queues at the branch created by its astounding base of some 400,000 retail customers. The launch of VISA Prepaid Card for the travel sector is currently underway. City Bank has launched American Express Credit Card and American Express Gold Credit card in November 2009. City Bank is the local caretaker of the brand and is responsible for all operations supporting the issuing of the new credit cards, including billing and accounting, customer service, credit management and charge authorisations, as well as marketing the cards in Bangladesh. Both cards are international cards and accepted by the millions of merchants operating on the American Express global merchant network in over 200 countries and territories including Bangladesh. It also introduced exclusive privileges for the card members under the American Express Selects program in Bangladesh. This will entitle any American Express card members to enjoy savings on retail and dining at some of the finest establishment in Bangladesh. It also provides privileges all over the globe with more than 13,000 offers at over 10,000 merchants in 75 countries.

City Bank is one of the largest corporate banks in the country with a current business model that heavily encourages and supports the growth of the bank in Retail and SME Banking. The bank is on its way to opening many independent SME centers across the country within a short time. The bank is active in the workers' foreign remittance business. It has strong tie-ups with major exchange companies in the Middle East, Europe, Far East and USA, from where thousands of individual remittances come to the country every month for disbursements through the bank's large network of 97 online branches and SME service centers. The management wants to turn the bank into a financial supermarket for financial products and services. It has to adopt a 'centralised' form of banking where individual or retail customers will approach the branch while the corporate clientele will be served from the head office and regional corporate offices and SME clientele will be served from the SME centers. All this would be backed by efficient operations service delivery units at head office supported by a robust IT backbone.

In 2008, a new logo and corporate slogan 'Making Sense of Money' was launched which gave the bank a new character that symbolises its epitome of advancement. The bank has broadened their business line and launched its brokerage operations in the capital market. The bank is establishing their own switching system for both debit as well as credit cards from their current third party switching system. This investment in IT system will enable their customers, access to exciting new products and enhance bank's capabilities to offer premier product features of international repute. [Muhammad Abdul Mazid]