Bank Asia Limited
Bank Asia Limited is a scheduled commercial bank in the private sector established under the Banking Company Act 1991 and incorporated in Bangladesh as a public limited company under the Companies Act of 1994 to carry out banking business in Bangladesh Bank.
The general administration and management of the bank are vested in an 18-member board of directors consisting of a chairman and 17 directors, including the managing director as the chief executive. On 31 December 2020, the bank had 129 urban branches and a total of 2463 employees. The 7 functional divisions at the bank's corporate head office in Dhaka are credit, central accounts, human resources, establishment, branch expansion and development, international, and public relations departments.
It set milestone by acquiring the business operations of the Bank of Nova Scotia in Dhaka, first in the banking history of Bangladesh. It again repeated the performance by acquiring the Bangladesh operations of Muslim Commercial Bank Ltd. (MCB), a Pakistani bank. In the year 2003 the Bank again came to the limelight with oversubscription of the Initial Public Offering of the shares of the Bank, which was a record (55 times) in our capital market's history and its shares commands respectable premium.
Table Basic Facts and Economic Indicators (In Million Taka).
| Indicators | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 |
| Authorized Capital | 15000 | 15000 | 15000 |
| Paid up Capital | 11104 | 11659 | 11659 |
| Reserved Fund | 12236 | 13086 | 15722 |
| Deposits | 222472 | 253710 | 303028 |
| a) Call Deposits | 54910 | 55543 | 68881 |
| b) Term Deposits | 167562 | 198167 | 234147 |
| Loans and Advance | 214618 | 227299 | 244642 |
| Investment | 35999 | 54933 | 94251 |
| Total Asset | 307291 | 353800 | 408717 |
| Total Income | 27131 | 30536 | 28106 |
| Total Expenditure | 19070 | 21214 | 22035 |
| Foreign Currency Trading | 362049 | 370330 | 348749 |
| a) Export | 136733 | 132465 | 108549 |
| b) Import | 165203 | 158115 | 141289 |
| c) Remittance | 60113 | 79750 | 98911 |
| Total Manpower | 2256 | 2376 | 2463 |
| a) Officers | 2240 | 2361 | 2447 |
| b) Staff | 16 | 15 | 16 |
| Correspondents Banks | 698 | 677 | 670 |
| Total Branches (in numbers) | 127 | 128 | 129 |
| a) Domestic | 127 | 128 | 129 |
| b) Overseas | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Agriculture credIt | |||
| Loan Disbursed | 2881 | 4309 | 5420 |
| Realised | 5519 | 4540 | 5392 |
| Industrial Credit | |||
| Loan Disbursed | 85464 | 68433 | 71622 |
| Realsied | 83561 | 64881 | 64157 |
| Loan Outstanding by Sector | |||
| Agriculture and Fisheries and Forestry | 2335 | 4187 | 5411 |
| Industry | 37401 | 47785 | 60964 |
| Trade and Commerce | 34361 | 36081 | 35601 |
| Poverty Reduction | 8 | 7 | 8 |
| CSR | 127 | 116 | 283 |
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.
The asset and liability growth has been remarkable. Bank Asia has been actively participating in the local money market as well as foreign currency market without exposing the Bank to vulnerable positions. The Bank's investment in Treasury Bills and other securities went up noticeably opening up opportunities for enhancing income in the context of a regime of gradual interest rate decline. Bank Asia Limited started its service with a vision to serve people with modern and innovative banking products and services at affordable charge. Being parallel to the cutting-edge technology the Bank is offering online banking with added delivery channels like ATM, Tele-banking, SMS and Net Banking. And as part of the bank's commitment to provide all modern and value-added banking service in keeping with the very best standard in a globalize world.
In 2019, bank deposits accounted for 2.0 per cent of total banking sector deposits and loans and advances accounted for 2.1 per cent of total banking sector loans and advances. The average interest rate differential between June 2019 based deposits and loans and advances was 4.5 percent. [Muhammad Abdul Mazid]
