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Uncertainty looms over AB Bank ATM project

Sajjadur Rahman
AB Bank's hunt for partners to set up a Tk 100 crore automated teller machines (ATM) network is yet to get proper response from banks despite its relentless efforts over the past one year, officials said.
Al-Arafah Islami Bank Ltd, one of the four banks that are supposed to forge partnership for the project, has already backtracked from its earlier commitment for what it said AB Bank's non-transparency and slow progress in the proce- dures.
The other three banks are: United Commercial Bank Limited (UCBL), South East Bank Limited and state-owned Agrani Bank Limited.
“AB Bank is far behind the schedule. The bank did not tell us on the progress of the project despite our requests,” Abdus Samad Sheikh, managing director of Al-Arafah Bank, told The Daily Star.
He said: "We have decided not to join the network.”
AB Bank Ltd and Euronet Worldwide, a global provider
of electronic payment services, announced in July last year that they would set up a joint venture company in Bangladesh to install 505 ATMs and 10,000 point-of-sales (POS) centres in three years by 2010 at $17 million equivalent to Tk 117.3 crore. The bank also formed a company named Cash Link Bangladesh Ltd (CBL) to this end.
Of the 505 ATMs, 100 were supposed to be installed by this year.
Meanwhile, the UCBL is also going ahead to set up its own ATM network, although the bank still has interest for the AB Bank-led network.
"The work is going slow. I have told them to expedite the process,” said Shahjahan Bhuiyan, managing director of UCBL. Officials in the four banks said they fear that their entry into the AB Bank-led ATM network may cost their business for the latter's image crisis.
The present government has fined AB Bank several hundred crore taka after detecting dubious transactions in the bank and also with its merchant banking. The Bangladesh Bank has recently ordered AB Bank to stop activ-ities of the AB Bank Foundation as it has been formed illegally.
However, Reazul Islam, who is the head of IT at AB Bank, is still hopeful of the project's success.
"This is a tedious exercise and takes time to materialise it,” he said, admitting that an agreement among all the
intending parties was supposed to be signed in February 2008.
“AB Bank is still hunting partners. But banks are preferring its own networks,” said Mahbub Patwary, chief executive officer of the CBL.
“We are looking for partners because the proposed ATM network will not be viable for the AB Bank only,” Patwary said.
AB Bank as the initiator of the network proposed to own 30 percent stakes in the CBL. AB Bank offered all commercial banks in Bangladesh to join its ATM network in July last year. But only four banks responded, one of which has already retrieved.
sajjad@thedailystar.net