NCC Bank to expand Islamic banking

The National Credit and Commerce (NCC) Bank will expand its Islamic banking activities very soon based on the growing popularity of Shariah-based banking, says the bank’s Managing Director and CEO Mohammad Mamdudur Rashid.

“We have already mobilised Tk 214 crore deposits in the Islamic banking sector and made a Tk 19 crore investment in just a few months,” he said at a press conference on the occasion of the bank’s 30th anniversary on Wednesday.

The bank started its Islamic banking activities on November 27 last year with a full-fledged Islamic branch and then it launched Islamic banking service desks in 112 branches.

Mamdudur said that the bank has taken proper initiatives to reduce non-performing loans. The process to recover the defaulted loans through legal procedures is going on.

However, the bank’s bad loans rate stood at 6.85 per cent at the end of last year, up from 4.57 per cent a year ago.

Mamdudur said that not only NCC Bank, but the non-performing loans of the whole banking sector have also increased in the last year due to various reasons, including the stress the country’s economy is under.

He said that their management has taken initiatives to tackle money laundering and terrorism financing as well.

The bank is also going to launch a separate unit for women entrepreneurs, Mamdudur said, adding that the unit will be operated by the bank’s women officials. Moreover, NCC Bank will put emphasise on retail businesses in the upcoming days. Its retail loans portfolio stands at Tk 692 crore now.

At the end of December last year, the bank’s import payment stood at Tk 14,454 crore, export earnings at Tk 8,760 crore, and remittance earnings at Tk 5,513 crore.

NCC Bank started its journey as an investment company back in 1985. It operated till 1992 with 16 branches.

After that, with the central bank’s permission, it became a full-fledged private commercial bank in 1993 with a paid-up capital of Tk 39 crore.