December 21, 2001	Friday	Shawwal 5, 1422

KARACHI, Dec 20: Bank Asia has signed an agreement with Muslim Commercial Bank Ltd to take over Bangladesh operations of the MCB.

According to a press release, the agreement of sale and purchase of the assets and liabilities between the two banks was concluded on November 30 this year in Dhaka.

With the completion of transition within a short time, Bank Asia will undertake the responsibility of all deposit liabilities and acquire the rights to the entire loan portfolio of the MCB. With it, the branches of MCB in Dhaka and Chittagong will become branches of Bank Asia.

MCB commenced its operation in Bangladesh in 1994 with two branches and a booth. Fifty-four employees are working there and Bank Asia will absorb all of them.

Bank Asia launched its operations in November 1999. Within a short span of time it built up a deposit of tk. 3.20 billion with a loan portfolio of tk. 2.59 billion with seven branches including a rural branch.

Bank Asia is a member of SWIFT, provides ATM services, and had arranged syndicated credit facilities to some large projects as lead arranger.