Rupali Bank Limited

Rupali Bank Limited established under the Bangladesh Banks Nationalisation Order 1972 by taking over the assets and liabilities of the Muslim Commercial Bank, Australasia Bank and Standard Bank that were functioning in East Pakistan. The bank started operations in March 1972 with an authorised capital of Tk 50 million and paid up capital of Tk 10 million. The paid up capital was raised to Tk 20 million in 1973. In view of the increased volume of banking activities and business, its authorised and paid up capital were further increased to Tk 7 billion and Tk 1.25 billion respectively.

Table Basic facts and economic indicators (in million Taka).

Indicators	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009
Authorised capital	7000	7000	7000	7000	7000	7000
Paid up capital	1250	1250	1250	1250	1250	1250
Reserved Fund	671	913	994	1066	3150	3444
Deposits	63674	66871	67832	72809	71394	72985
(a) Call Deposits	17298	10868	12014	14882	14456	22277
(b) Term Deposits	46376	56003	55818	57927	56938	50708
Loans and Advance	45345	44921	45710	47080	49030	52344
Investment	13203	12903	12068	14091	12546	14303
Total Asset	71580	75120	76241	81923	82312	87574
Total income	4372	4759	4838	10732	5850	7242
Total Expenditure	3859	3948	4583	10369	4705	5143
Foreign Currency Trading	42564	41413	39849	45151	49517	55033
a) Export	6800	6118	6959	6399	7284	7527
b) Import	24424	21654	14840	19857	20590	25194
c) Remittance	11340	13641	18050	18895	21643	22312
Total Manpower:	5225	5008	4753	4430	4269	4529
a) Officers	3346	3204	3006	2749	2830	3148
b) Staff	1879	1804	1747	1681	1439	1381
Correspondents Banks	172	177	180	162	162	162
Total Branches (in numbers)	493	492	492	492	492	492
a) Domestic	492	492	492	492	492	492
b) Overseas	1	1	-	-	-	-
Agriculture Credit:
Loan Disbursed	176	256	186	195	499	606
Realised	95	166	187	213	209	361
Industrial Credit:
Loan Disbursed	3613	2794	582	5761	8083	12328
Realsied	1812	2195	2879	939	1949	2776
Loan Outstanding by Sector
Agriculture and Fisheries	149	156	152	148	151	173
Industry	13233	9422	9916	10328	10592	11325
Trade and Commerce	14793	18969	18723	19106	20429	20740
Poverty Reduction	145	248	299	332	383	974

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 was denationalised on 14 December of 1986 with the provision that the government of Bangladesh would hold at least 51% of its share capital and the rest would be subscribed by the general public. In 1997, the government's share in its paid up capital was 94.55%. Because of the very large share of the government in the bank's capital, it is still considered as a nationaliased commercial bank. On 30 June 2000, the number of shareholders of the bank was 2,723. On that date, its reserve funds stood at Tk 181 million.

In addition to traditional deposit taking in various accounts and providing loans to almost all sectors of the economy, the bank offers different types of services including agency services to the government in food procurement and collection of government revenue through the network of its branches all over Bangladesh. Rupali Bank has large participation in foreign exchange business including overseas remittance services. The total volume of foreign exchange business handled by the bank in servicing imports and exports of goods and remittance during 1999-2000 amounted to Tk 22.743 billion compared to only Tk 480 million in 1972-73. At present, the bank has correspondent relationships with 175 foreign banks/bank offices throughout the world.

The management of the bank is vested in a 13-member board of directors appointed by the government. The board has a chairman assisted by 6 directors. The managing director is the chief executive of the bank. The bank has a divisional office at each of the six administrative divisions of the country and in addition, it has regional offices. The various important divisions/departments of the bank at its head office are for personnel, establishment and welfare, general banking, central accounts, development, planning and research, general credit, specialised credit, international transactions, audit and inspection, law and recovery and rural credit and reconciliation. The bank operates a large-scale foreign trade and also provides different services including transshipment of foreign remittances. Presently the bank is functioning correspondent banking with 162 banks and financial institutions all over the world. Also it had an overseas branch in Karachi.

The bank receives deposit from various service's accounts and distributes loan in every sector of economy. Moreover, Rupali bank arranges for agency service to the government in food collecting programme and accepts revenue through all the 492 branches across the country. At present, the total number employee of the bank is 4293. [Muhammad Abdul Mazid]