Bangladesh House Building Finance Corporation

Bangladesh House Building Finance Corporation (BHBFC) a specialised public sector financial institution was set up in 1973 under the President's Order No. 7 of 1973, repealing the House Building Finance Corporation Act XVIII of 1952. Its sole objective is to provide credit facilities for construction, repair and remodeling of dwelling houses and apartments in cities, towns and other urban areas. All inherited assets and liabilities of the erstwhile House Building Finance Corporation were vested in the reconstituted BHBFC. Until March 2009 the authorised and paid up capital of BHBFC stoods at Taka 1100 million and Taka 973 million respectively. The government arranges entire paid up capital. Current paid up capital is mobilised through sale of debentures guaranteed by the government to Bangladesh Bank, National Commercial Banks NCBs, private commercial banks and Insurance Corporation. As on June 30, 2008 the Balance of the debenture account stood at Taka 11637 million.

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

Indicators	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009
Authorised capital	1100	1100	1100	1100	1100	1100
Paid up capital	973	973	973	973	973	1100
Reserved Fund	9536	9963	10662	11354	12081	12920
Deposits	1249	1731	2140	2664	3615	2339
(a) Call Deposits	-	-	-	-	-	-
(b) Term Deposits	1249	1731	2140	2664	3615	2339
Loans and Advance	28945	27846	26268	25164	24396	24996
Total Asset	30745	30486	30450	30556	30744	30724
Total income	1865	2007	2054	2130	2256	2363
Total Expenditure	1002	1031	1102	941	952	1015
Total Manpower:	527	498	453	452	456	463
(a) Officers	285	269	248	271	283	290
(b) Staff	242	229	205	181	173	173
Total Branches (in numbers)	23	23	23	23	23	23
(a) Zonal	9	9	9	9	9	9
(b) Regional	13	13	13	13	13	13
(c) Camp Office	2	1	1	1	1	1

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.

BHBFC has 21 offices in different parts of the country with its head office in Dhaka. Of these, 2 Directorates and 5 divisions are under the headquarters, 9 are zonal offices (4 in Dhaka and one each in Chittagong, Khulna, Rajshahi, Sylhet and Barisal) and 13 are regional offices located at district headquarters of Dhaka, Mymensingh, Tangail, Jamalpur, Faridpur, Comilla, Noakhali, Rangamati, Jessore, Kushtia, Pabna, Bogra and Dinajpur. In addition, there are 2 BHBFC camp offices, one each at Narayanganj and cox's bazar.

BHBFC runs its business under the overall guidance and supervision of a 6-member Board of Directors appointed by the government. The board guide and supervise the policies and management of the fund. The board of directors may meet any regional or zonal office to review the administrative as well as functional progress of the organisation. The chief executive of the corporation is the Managing Director, who is assisted by general managers to provide executive support to the board in discharging its role and responsibilities; the number of employees in BHBFC is 456, including 283 executives and officers of different levels.

BHBFC took over the principal objective of HBFC and to cope with increasing demand, the corporation extended the area of its financing up to some upazila headquarters. The lending policy of BHBFC has changed over the years to cater to the funding needs of various types of housing. For quite a long time, the corporation was engaged in giving loans such as general loans and multi-storied loans. Currently, it provides 5 types of loan and one type of short term loan: (a) general loans for construction of single or multi-storied residential houses on land/plots owned by a single person or by a husband and wife jointly; (b) group loans for the construction of flats by a group of borrowers on a plot owned jointly; (c) apartment loans for purchasing under-construction apartments in Dhaka and Chittagong Metropolitan areas; (d) loans for constructing semi-pucca houses in district and selected upazila headquarters; (e) adjustment loans for completion of an under-construction house and side by side with expansion of areas of house building financing, the corporation has also increased its loan ceiling; (f) short term loan facility for the completion of nearing completing house. [Muhammad Abdul Mazid]