Muhammed Ali Premier Bank Ltd has taken a move to transform its whole banking activities into a new shape.
"Over the last two years, the metamorphosis is visible in our performance parameters," said Muhammed Ali, Advisor of the bank.
As per the latest update, the bank's total asset stood at Tk 200 billion, loan portfolio Tk 150 billion and deposit Tk 165 billion.
The deposit, loans & advances, profit, import, export and remittance of the bank in the last one year (from June 2017 to June 2018) jumped 13 per cent, 15 per cent, 10 per cent, 40 per cent, 12 per cent and 67 per cent growth respectively.
Capital adequacy rate of the bank is 12.2 per cent while ADR is below 83 per cent.
With adoption of some new strategic changes, Premier Bank Ltd has vowed to grab a leading position in coming months in the competitive businesses.
"We will be among the top five private commercial banks (PCBs) in 2019 as our bank has witnessed notable performance in deposit, loans and advances and profit till September 30, 2018 against the corresponding period of 2017," said the Advisor of the bank.
He said a total of 14 parameters were identified to gauge the actual health of the bank after his joining here in mid-May of 2017.
He said three major functions can run a bank smoothly with sustainable growth. The functions are business relationship function, support function and risk, control & compliance function.
"Our management puts thrust on establishing relationship, supportive and compliance-related parameters to yield better results after modifying the organogram set-up," the veteran banker explained.
The relationship parameter is closely aligned between the head office and the branches to increase business volumes.
Under such a modified organogram, the officials of the bank make a close attachment with the clients.
"I asked my officials to spend 65 per cent time of their total working hours to serve the clients and as a result, the clients feel encouraged to do banking with our bank reducing the chances of loans, they borrowed becoming classified or doubtful," the Premier Bank advisor mentioned.
"In the supportive service, our officials do their desk-based jobs diligently and assiduously," he explained.
On the other hand, in the compliance category, all the officials of the bank follow the rules and regulations
religiously as per the regulatory framework.
In the next phases, the bank puts thrust on enhancing export volume, creation of employment and diversification of market.
"Without strengthening the SME financing, it is quite impossible to achieve that target and we, therefore, rightly do our jobs in the SME sector," the Premier Bank advisor asserted.
Apart from RMG and foreign remittance, financial inclusion and investment in SME sector are now the desperate craving for ensuring development, he said.
"Our bank does not focus only on making money, rather we are working for building national economy through financial inclusion and providing support to entrepreneurs in different sector for poverty alleviation, rapid industrialization and national economic growth."
He said with a median age of 26.7, Bangladesh's young and growing working-age population will endow the country with the benefits of demographic dividend today, and build a strong base for domestic consumption in the coming decades.
"That's why we offer different types of SME, agriculture loans, women entrepreneurship loan and app-based services for targeted customers as per their need."
Premier Grameen Swanirvor Loan is one of those. Target customers of this scheme are Bangladeshi citizen who stay in rural, suburban, urban area & involved in activity like agricultural production, rural transportation, Micro & Cottage level trading, manufacturing and processing, servicing business & any income generating activity. Loan amount is from Tk 10,000 to Tk 10 Lac with the tenor of three months to 36 months. Another scheme is Premier Samridhi under Bangladesh Bank Re-finance scheme for TK I0. Account holder. Under this scheme, Tk 10. Account holder can take loan from minimum Tk 10 thousand to maximum Tk 50 thousand and the Loan tenor is from 3 Months to 12 months with 9.5 percent interest rate.
Financial reports of the bank showed that it has been gradually increasing SME loans over the years. In 2013, the bank had disbursed Tk 711 crore in SME sectors. In 2018, the amount was increased to Tk 1,895 crore. Tk 2,315 crore was distributed in SME sectors in the following year. Premier Bank has set target of distributing Tk 2,500 crore for 2018. So far, Tk 1,556 crore was distributed in first seven months.
"Premier Bank will become a SME-driven bank by 2020. We are planning to distribute 60 per cent loans of their total loan portfolio as SME loans."
He said the bank has launched 'tracking business module' to ensure the strict monitoring of the SME loan disbursement and recovery.
"Earlier our focus was on big ventures and large scale investments. Now we are concentrating more on SME and agriculture loans. Small and medium level entrepreneurs are now prioritized in loan distributions, deposit collections, and other types banking facilities."
"We have already complied with the central bank directive to reduce the ADR at 83.5 per cent by March next," the advisor of the bank pointed out.
He said cost of deposit should be reduced to survive in the competitive market.
"We are offering better services on current account and saving accounts (CASAs) to reduce the growing cost of fund."
We have opened about 0.2 million CASAs in last one year which was impossible in the previous five years.
"Such a huge amount of new deposits is bulwark against any kind of out-flow of big deposits from the banks."
In testimony to the adoption of some innovative strategic changes, the key indicators of the bank showed a significant improvement in recent months and the result will be more visible in coming months, he added.
Premier Bank, a third generation bank has now 104 branches in the country and it will celebrate the 19th anniversary this week.
"Moreover, we have launched agent banking services to snare a big portion of the market which remains mostly unbanked and initially there are 150 such outlets across the country," Advisor of the bank said.
In ever changing economy, change is must to make the institution to way forward aligned with the economy. Considering the fact, recently Premier Bank has recast its corporate organogram and new strategic changes to ensure growth in sustainable manner.
Our tagline is 'service first'. Now three more ethical values : Ownership, Innovation and Ambition are added in our revised tagline.
Commenting on the future challenges of the banking sector, the advisor of the bank said : The whole banking industry foresees a major challenge that will come from digitisation and we have fortified our position to embrace that challenge anticipating the necessary changes.
"Every change is welcome though it is difficult to embrace the new technology, but we are strongly committed to make our bank a tech-savvy entity in coming months," he said.
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