Prime Bank to set up SME centres in remote areas

The Prime Bank Limited will set up SME service centres in remote areas of the country to help grow small and medium enterprises, said the bank’s managing director, Mohammad Ehsanul Haque.
‘Prime Bank has big plans for SME banking, but it will not be easy to offer large-scale SME service, BRAC Bank does, to the customers,’ he said.
Mentioning the preference given by his bank to banking and reaching it to the doorstep of the clients, the managing director said the Prime Bank was providing home loans, car loans, loans for education, travel and purchase of consumer goods, marriage loan, doctors’ loans, and loans against salary.
‘Prime Bank has secured top position in the country’s private banking sector in term of holding assets and investment which has made the bank’s financial condition sound,’ Haque said, adding that the bank’s total asset now stood at Tk 16,000 crore.
The Prime Bank’s capital amounts to Tk 713.74 crore and capital adequacy ratio is 10.50 per cent. Portfolio loan of the bank has increased 36 per cent to Tk 7,414 crore.
Regarding corporate social responsibility, he informed New Age that the bank was running a number of projects in different areas that include health and education through the Prime Bank Foundation.
‘We have provided free medical services to children with heart problems,’ he said.
The bank is also planning to set up an international standard hospital in the country so that people need not go abroad for treatment, he announced.
Prime Bank earned a net profit of Tk 140.07 crore in 2006-07 against the previous fiscal year’s Tk 105.19 crore, according to the DSE official website.
As per the un-audited half-yearly accounts, as on June 30, 2008, the bank achieved a consolidated profit after tax of Tk 82.60 crore against Tk 62.86-crore post-tax profit in the same period of the previous. The net turnover in the period was Tk 270.78 crore.
Prime Bank started its journey on April 17 in 1995. The bank was listed with the Dhaka Stock Exchange on March 29, 2000. It is also listed with the Chittagong Stock Exchange.