NCC Bank mulls expansion of customer services

NCC Bank plans to expand customer services further using modern technologies with a view to making the bank the most attractive one in the near future.
 "We're committed to provide automated services by installing latest technologies for ensuring quality services to our valued clients," Mosleh Uddin Ahmed, Managing Director and CEO (current charge) of the National Credit and Commerce (NCC) Bank Limited, told the FE in an exclusive interview on Monday, just two days before the bank's 24th anniversary.
 He also said NCC Bank is serving the nation as a progressive and socially responsible financial institution by bringing credit and commerce together for increased shareholders' value ensuring sustainable growth since its inception on May 17, 1993.
 "We're giving priority to both SME and agriculture sectors to facilitate inclusive economic growth by bringing more unbanked people in the banking network," the CEO said while explaining the focus of the private sector commercial bank.
He also said the SME sector has already emerged as a new means of livelihood through generation of employment in non-farming sectors.
 "It is now playing a crucial role in supply and distribution chain of large corporate entities," he noted.
 The senior banker termed classified loans in the banking sector as one of the major challenges, saying that the banks alone cannot reduce the volume of Non-Performing Loans (NPLs) without help of the authorities concerned.
 "We need social and political commitments to face the challenge of NPLs in the banking sector," the NCC Bank top executive opined.
 Mr. Ahmed's observations came against the backdrop of rising trend of classified loans in the country's banking sector despite close monitoring by the central bank.
 The amount of NPLs jumped by more than 21 per cent to Tk 621.72 billion as on December 31 last year from Tk 513.71 billion on the same day of the previous year.
 "Such high NPLs are dragging down the profits of banks to a large extent requiring maintenance of keeping provision for a given period," the executive noted.
 According to the senior banker, the lending rates might come down 2 per cent further if the NPL issue gets proper attention.
 The weighted average interest rates on lending fell to 9.70 per cent in March last from 9.77 per cent in the previous month while interest rates on deposits was reduced to 5.01 per cent from 5.08 per cent.
 Commenting on the recent global cyber crime, the engineer-turned-banker said it has become a matter of great concern for the country's banking sector.
Mr. Ahmed recommended immediate updating and reinforcement of firewalls for saving the banking system from any cyber crime in future.
 Regarding falling trend of the flow of inward remittance in the recent months, the CEO urged the authorities concerned for taking effective measures immediately to revamp the inflow.
"We'll have to take effective measures soon for increasing the flow of inward remittances," Mr. Ahmed felt.   
 The overall remittance inflow dropped by 16.03 per cent or US$ 1.96 billion in the first 10 months of this fiscal year (FY), 2016-17, against the same period of the previous fiscal.
 Currently, the NCC Bank is running its businesses with 106 branches across the country.
Mr. Ahmed graduated in Electrical and Electronic Engineering and obtained MBA from the Institute of Business Administration (IBA) of Dhaka University. He has more than two decades of banking experience in various fields of banking in different capacities.
 siddique.islam@gmail.com