Bank Asia and Green Banking

We aspire to establish us as a prominent institution that will operate to reach our long term strategic objective to be a green, triple bottom line bank where every decision will be taken with both financial and environmental considerations in mind. We have unified our sustainable operations under one roof by forming “Green Banking Unit” equipped with permanent employees. Our Green Banking Policy Guidelines and Green Office Guide have been circulated to all our employees for creating awareness on Green Banking activities & providing instructions about conserving energy, water, saving paper, etc. As a Bank we play an intermediary role between economic development and conservation of the environment. Our Green Banking activities are on multidimensional areas which include both in-house environment management and undertaking Green Financing towards supporting Green Economy:

Green Finance:

We are witnessing early stages of Green Technology and we have ventured into this arena as well as other environment friendly projects as evidenced by the following initiatives:

As part of our commitment for our Green Economy we have signed a Participation Agreement with Bangladesh Bank under refinance scheme on August 10, 2011 for lending in Solar Energy, Bio- Gas, Effluent Treatment Plant & Hybrid Hoffman Kiln (HHK). a) Financing to the tune of Tk. 39.3 million to SSL Ceramic Bricks Ltd. towards setting up of Brick manufacturing project using HHK technology with a capacity of manufacturing 0.84 million bricks per month. b) Financing to the tune of Tk. 346.81 million to EETA & Tiles to produce brick using HHK Technology which has the capacity to manufacture 66,000,000 pieces of brick per year which will reduce approximately 22,000 tons of CO2 yearly. c) Financing of Tk. 180.12 million to H. Auto Bricks Limited which envisages of setting of a modern, environment friendly & energy efficient Brick Manufacturing project utilizing Hybrid Hoffmann Kiln Technology with a capacity of 120,000 pieces auto bricks per day. d) Bank Asia also financed Tk. 207.80 million (funded Tk. 191.10 million and non- funded Tk. 157.80 million) to Auto-bricks & Ceramics Pvt. Ltd., a sister concern of RAK Group, which envisages of setting up a Brick manufacturing project with the Tunnel Kiln technology which is the most energy efficient technology in this industry across the world. The project will have a production capacity of 1, 00,000 pieces of brick per day. In the first nine month of this year (2012) we have lent Tk. 6,040.45 million for 37 projects having installation of Effluent Treatment Plant that will help to reduce the discharge of untreated factory waste water into the rivers. Earlier Bank Asia’s client Echotex Ltd. achieved the “National Environment Award 2010” for environment pollution control by establishing Bank Asia financed Effluent Treatment Plant (ETP) and was awarded by Honorable Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. In 2011, Bank Asia disbursed an amount of Tk. 96.43 million through rural Branches and NGOs for cultivating various types of crops which benefitted around 6,576 farmers and during the first nine months of 2012 we have disbursed Tk. 237.05 million to 16,655 farmers, which helps sequestration of Carbon. Bank Asia as the Lead Arranger is in the process of raising fund under Syndication arrangement for establishing paper converting bag manufacturing plant for Propac Ltd. and Packaging World Ltd. These will be the first of its kind of industry in our country for producing and exporting environmental friendly food bags to USA & Canada -the biggest markets for the products. The entrepreneurs have taken necessary steps to maintain high standards of manufacturing process to meet stringent quality standards of these markets. These projects would promote green banking initiatives through low carbon emitting production process, as recycled papers would be used as raw materials for production of finished goods, leading to conservation of trees. In this two projects Bank Asia has approved financing of Tk. 200.00 million.

Other Activities on Green Banking:

We have also incorporated environment friendly and resource saving initiatives into our banking operations as follows:

Bank Asia has been one of the pioneers in introducing Online Banking and it covers 74 branches/ SME centers, 68 own ATMs, 2890 shared ATMs. Clients can also have access to their accounts through Internet & Mobile Banking. Bank Asia has been equipped with Bangladesh Automated Clearing House (BACH) system since October 2010, which allows paperless cheque clearing. Instruments of Green Banking offered by Cards Division include E-Statement, SMS Banking, SMS Alert, Net Banking, E Fund Transfer, Digital Attendance and E Mail corresponding, which help reducing printing paper. Our Cards Department has formally launched its digital filling system where more than 200,000 pages of various files have been digitally archived and indexed it for digital query. We are saving around 32% electricity (used for lighting purpose) by using the day light in our Corporate Office. We have installed Solar panels in our 7 branches located at Patherhat, Madhobdi, Dohajari, Hajigonj, Faridpur, Elephant Road and Lalmatia branches. In an alliance with a Canadian firm AlertPay, Bank Asia is the first local bank to introduce an easy online payment gateway service that will allow the country's IT freelancers to bring their dollars deposited in the accounts with AlertPay in any of their bank accounts in the country through Bank Asia at cheaper rate. Bank Asia is the 10th private commercial bank to launch Express cash system which is easier and faster domestic remittance service. Bank Asia is a pioneer in rolling out Online Learning Tool (OLT). Our Human Resources Department (HRD) implemented OLT by which the trainees can learn from their own work station without attending any formal class.

Disclosure & Reporting of Green Banking Activities:

In view of highlighting our Green Banking activities and creating awareness amongst our stakeholders, this year “Half Yearly Financial Position, 2012” incorporates Green Banking concept. This report reflects the major activities of Green Banking arena and the key activities of our Sustainable Banking Operations. Our Annual report, 2011 and Annual report, 2010 we have been published with separate section on our Green Banking activities & Sustainable operations. We have commemorated this year’s World Environment Day by arranging Workshop at our Corporate Office in Dhaka, which was simultaneously linked by Video Conferencing with Chittagong Zone. We have arranged two day workshop on “Credit Appraisal System & Green Banking” in 3 phases. Two of our employees from Finance & Accounts attended training program on "Global Reporting Initiatives (GRI)"held at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia from 25th September, 2012- 27th September, 2012. As per Bangladesh Bank policy on Green Banking, Banks are to publish independent annual report as per GRI format upcoming third phase. The Articles & Press releases of our workshops on Green Banking were published in different newspapers which reflect our Green initiatives to our employees, our stakeholders and all subscribers of those newspapers.

Bangladesh Bank Rating on Green Banking: Bangladesh Bank has recognized Bank Asia as one of the top ten private commercial Banks for their contribution to Green Banking activities across the country.

As our economy moves ahead, we believe financial institutions should undertake more sustainable activities as we need to make the optimum utilization of our resources. We are working forward to extend our reach for Green Banking Initiatives in the coming year and hope to maintain our leading position.