Shahjalal Islami Bank Ltd (SJIBL) has taken a number of steps to strengthen its operation in view of the bank's completion of nine years.

"We congratulate our clients, shareholders, patrons and all employees of our bank on this happy occasion as the SJIBL attained significant successes in all areas of business during the last nine years," managing director of the bank Muhammad Ali said at a press conference in the city Monday.



This year, the bank would also open its first overseas exchange house in New York, USA to facilitate the in-flow of remittance.

"We are expecting a massive increase in our deposit and investment in the year 2010", Mr Muhammad Ali said.

"This would be followed by a substantial growth in our business performance over the last decade", he added.

"Our total amount of deposit, at the end of 2009, stood at Tk 47.46 billion from Tk. 1.40 billion in 2001 while the total amount of investment rose to Tk. 43.96 billion from Tk. 220 million at the very beginning", Mr Ali said.

The annual general meeting of the bank has already approved a 25 per cent stock dividend for the year 2009, rising from 22 per cent in 2008 and 20 per cent in the preceding annum, the bank officials said.

"The consistent increase in the bank's stock dividend showcases our constant growth in terms of business performance over the years",

The bank's total paid up capital, at the end of 2009, stood at Tk. 2.74 billion, while the amount is expected to reach Tk. 3.43 billion this year after disbursing the dividend, officials informed.

"A major focus of our investment this year would in the production of salt as per Bangladesh Bank's thrust on providing agricultural loan, while small and medium scale businesses like light engineering sector would also receive the priority", the SJIBL Managing Director said.

"We are planning to disburse agricultural credit amounting to Tk. one billion for salt production this year for which the main salt growing coastal regions of Chittagong and Cox's Bazar would be specially targeted", he added.

The bank is also targeting a solid increase in its import and export business in 2010 as the amount of import is expected to reach Tk. 55 billion during the ongoing year from Tk. 39.54 billion in 2009 while the export is expected to grow by 44.39 per cent to reach Tk. 42.50 billion.

"So far, we are quite on track to reach our target for the year", the SJIBL MD said, "as until April, we have attained 93 percent of our targeted month wise core deposit".

"At the same time, our month wise net investment is 96 per cent of what we have targeted while the figure for import and export stood at 97 and 89 per cent of our target", he added.

According to official figures, the Tier-1 capital of the bank as on April 30, 2010 stood at Tk. 5.16 billion while the total equity amounted to Tk. 5.99 billion.

The bank will also strengthen its IT base to increase the productivity and operational efficiency, the MD said.

"This year, we would set up 10 more branches, five SME centers, 10 more units of our brokerage house as well as five more ATM booths as part of our expansion move", Mr Muhammad Ali said.

According to official statistics, the bank is currently operating through 51 branches, one offshore banking unit, seven SME service centers, five brokerage house units and six ATM booths.