Haque Specialized Group's News

Siddique Islam The interest rate  on  the  outstanding  amount  of  credit  card  shall  not  exceed  5.0 per cent of the highest interest rate offered in any credits of the respective banks, according to a revised guideline. Interest/profit shall be charged on the unpaid amount due for payment, said a notification on the guidelines issued by Bangladesh Bank (BB) Thursday. The new guidelines on credit card operations will come into effect from January 01 next. In the previous guideline that was scheduled to come into effect on May 11, the banks have been asked not to charge the credit card users more than 5.0 per cent of the highest interest rate of their respective consumer loan products. "We've revised the guidelines in line with the decisions of a meeting with the leaders of Association of Bankers Bangladesh (ABB)," a BB senior official told the FE. Earlier on June 19 last, a six-member delegation of the ABB, a forum of the banks' chief executives, led by its chairman Anis A. Khan met BB Governor Fazle Kabir to discuss about the guidelines. Talking to the FE, Ali Reza Iftekhar, managing director (MD) and chief executive officer (CEO) of Eastern Bank Limited, said the interest rate on the outstanding amount of credit cards will come down to 23-25 per cent from the existing level of 30 per cent following the revision of the guidelines. The operational cost for credit card is 8.0 per cent as compared to 3.0 per cent for other loans, said the former ABB chairman, explaining the main cause of higher interest rates on credit card loans. About the billing process, the revised operational guidelines said: "If  a  due  date  falls  on  a  Friday,  Saturday  or  any  other  public/bank  holidays  published  by Government/BB  at  the  beginning  of  each  year, the card issuer shall allow the grace period (holiday) as required for payment to be made on the next working day." The issuer banks are now allowed to issue supplementary foreign currency or dual currency credit cards under the revised guidelines.   The central bank earlier advised the card issuers not to issue any supplementary foreign currency or dual currency credit card. Currently, 9.0 million debit cards are being used across the country while the number of issuing credit cards stood at around 1.0 million, according to the market operators. siddique.islam@gmail.com....

Published at: 2017-08-04 00:00:05

FE Report Civil society members termed on Thursday the observations made in the full verdict on the 16th amendment a 'rare set of remarks.' They said the state of the country's governance and capacities of institutions was reflected in the remarks made in the full verdict. When asked, noted jurist Dr Shahdeen Malik said the observations were not part of the verdict. "They are just remarks and thoughts," he added. He said making such strong observations in a court verdict is very common in developed countries, but it is a 'rare set of remarks' for Bangladesh. He, however, said the observations are worth taking note; but those have hardly any implementation value. Those are 'obiter dicta'. The Latin term 'obiter dicta' means remarks of a judge which are not necessary to reaching a decision, but are made as comments, illustrations or thoughts. Former Adviser to caretaker government M Hafizuddin Khan termed the observations of the SC very positive. He said those would certainly be helpful for the country's judiciary, democracy and good governance.     "I see each observation of the SC verdict on 16th amendment very positively," Mr Khan said. Echoing the same tone, Professor Amena Mohsin of the Department of International Relations at Dhaka University, however, said the government, political parties and others have many things to learn from such observations. "I think the government, political parties and other stakeholders should take it positively and also follow those for the betterment of the country's democracy, good governance and other institutions," she said. The Supreme Court (SC) in its full verdict on the 16th amendment to the Constitution released on Tuesday made various observations regarding inability to build up any public institution, rampant corruption, dysfunctional parliament and acute mismanagement in the administration. It also said the government becomes arrogant and uncontrolled in the absence of checks and balances and an effective watchdog mechanism. It also noted that human rights are at stake. It said millions of people are deprived of basic healthcare. The lives and security of citizens are becoming utterly insecure.  "A society where a good man does not dream of good things at all; but the bad man is all the more restless to grab a few more of bounty," the SC said. It said politics as an institution is completely destroyed. With the development of technology, the dimensions of crimes are changing, the apex court says, adding that the lives and security of citizens are becoming utterly insecure. The law enforcing agencies are unable to tackle the situation and the combined result of all this is a crippled society, it added. It said, "Even after forty-six years of independence, we have not been able to institutionalise any public institutions. There are no checks and balances, there is no watchdog mechanism at work, thus the people in the position are being indulged into abuse of power and showing audacity of freehand exercise of power." The government in September 2014 brought the 16th amendment. The amendment was challenged in the High Court. The HC in May 2016 declared the amendment unconstitutional and void. The government challenged the verdict by filing an appeal with the Appellate Division which rejected the government's appeal on July 3 and upheld the HC verdict. It says that after independence, those unholy alliances of power-mongers reduced this country to a banana republic twice. People were bluffed and compromised to legitimise their illegal exercise of power. Thus as an institution, the notion of 'politics' has been completely destroyed. smjahangirfe@gmail.com....

Published at: 2017-08-04 00:00:05

FE Report A former US ambassador opined  on Thursday that he sees scopes for reinstating the GSP facility for Bangladesh, as renewal of the US trade privilege for the countries concerned is scheduled by the end of this year. Frank G Wisner, the former US ambassador in Zambia, Egypt and India, however, said it is his own observation. He also underscored the need for taking various steps and developing relationship between the US and Bangladesh. He said these at the luncheon of American Chamber of Commerce in Bangladesh (AmCham) at a city hotel. The ambassador was speaking on 'Reflections on the US-Bangladesh Relationship' in the programme. Commerce Minister Tofael Ahmed was its chief guest, where US Ambassador to Bangladesh Marcia S Bernicat also spoke. He said encountering violent extremism, integration of the people who follow radicalism with the society, and protecting human rights etc are important for the welfare of citizens of both the countries. Bangladesh's GSP has been suspended since June 2013 on the ground of poor labour rights and weak workplace safety. The country has been lobbying with the US for reinstatement of the facility by addressing the US-provided 16 conditions. Bangladesh also submitted progress reports on addressing these conditions twice to United States Trade Representative (USTR).  But, USTR did not revive the trade privilege. Wisner, who was in Dhaka as the chief of economic affairs in 1973, shared his experiences in the war-devastated country. He said now he has become impressed with the economic growth of Bangladesh that it has achieved over the years. The ambassador, however, highlighted the challenges that the country has been facing in continuing the growth in the 'very fast competitive world'. The former diplomat also expressed his surprise over the looting of money by hackers from the central bank last year. He highlighted the need for taking US-Bangladesh joint efforts for developing institutions to ensure national safety and security. Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed in his speech at the meeting said Bangladesh has achieved significant progress in workplace safety and labour rights after the GSP suspension. "We do not need GSP. We've started to forget about GSP," he further said. Bangladesh's export to the US is less competitive, as the American importers have to give 15.62 percent duty on import of apparel items from Bangladesh, whereas the duty rate in case of other countries is much lower. The US traders, who import apparel goods from Bangladesh, paid nearly $5.0 billion as duty to the US customs over the last five years, Tofail Ahmed said. Bangladesh used to export some items, like - plastic goods, under GSP privilege. The country exported goods worth $23 million under the facility in 2013, when it was suspended. The US ambassador in Bangladesh said the country's export to the US has doubled during the last 10 years and reached $6.8 billion in the last fiscal year. Regarding the US-Bangladesh bilateral relation Marcia Bernicat said in the third Trade and Investment Cooperation Forum Agreement (TICFA), which took place in Dhaka in May, both the countries discussed several market access issues, including workplace safety, labour rights, US investment in Bangladesh, and digital economy here. She is hopeful that Bangladesh will amend its labour law and EPZ law to make these of international standards, as the country committed in International Labour Conference. AmCham President Md Nurul Islam chaired the meeting, where diplomats and ambassadors of different countries and businessmen, including Farooq Sobhan and President of International Chamber of Commerce, Bangladesh Mahbudur Rahman were present, among others.     smunima@yahoo.com    ....

Published at: 2017-08-04 00:00:05

A fire broke out after midnight in one of the world’s tallest residential towers in Dubai, engulfing part of the skyscraper and sending chunks of debris plummeting below. More than 40 floors of the 86-story Torch Tower were burning on one side of the building, an Associated Press journalist near the scene of the blaze said. Building residents could be seen on the street outside crying with several saying the fire broke out just after 1 a.m. Friday local time. Dubai’s Civil Defense announced at about 3:30 a.m. that firefighters had brought the blaze under control and that no injuries had been reported. Fire is engulfing a high-rise residential tower in Dubai in the middle of the night, sending plumes of smoke into the air and debris falling below. Police say no injuries have been reported so far in the blaze at the Torch Tower. “Cooling operations are underway,” Dubai’s official media office said on Twitter. It was the second time in 2 ½ years that the more than 1,100-foot-tall (335 meters) tower has been ravaged by fire. The tower, located in the popular waterfront Marina district, caught fire in February 2015, but there were no major casualties reported in that blaze. Early Friday, authorities shared a photo of the charred and blackened tower but it was no longer visibly in flames. Officials said they were now working on providing shelter for those affected. Dubai police cordoned off several blocks around the building, keeping people away from the fire’s falling debris. Several skyscrapers in the United Arab Emirates have caught fire in recent years, including a towering inferno that engulfed a 63-story luxury hotel in Dubai on New Year’s Eve in 2016. In that blaze, as in others in Dubai in recent years, residents escaped without major injury. Earlier this year, Dubai passed new fire safety rules requiring buildings with quick-burning side panelling to replace it with more fire-resistant siding. Authorities have previously acknowledged that at least 30,000 buildings across the UAE have cladding or panelling that safety experts have said accelerates the rapid spread of fires. A devastating tower fire in London in June killed at least 80 people and prompted Britain to order more thorough testing on the cladding systems of its towers.   ....

Published at: 2017-08-04 00:00:05

Marcus Hutchins, a young British researcher credited with derailing a global cyberattack in May, was arrested for allegedly creating and distributing malicious software designed to collect bank-account passwords, US authorities said Thursday. News of Hutchins’ detention came as a shock to the cybersecurity community. Many had rallied behind the researcher whose quick thinking helped control the spread of the WannaCry ransomware attack that crippled thousands of computers. Hutchins was detained in Las Vegas on his way back to Britain from an annual gathering of hackers and information security gurus. A grand jury indictment charged Hutchins with creating and distributing malware known as the Kronos banking Trojan. Such malware infects web browsers, then captures usernames and passwords when an unsuspecting user visits a bank or other trusted location, enabling cybertheft. The indictment, filed in a Wisconsin federal court last month, alleges that Hutchins and another defendant — whose name was redacted — conspired between July 2014 and July 2015 to advertise the availability of the Kronos malware on internet forums, sell the malware and profit from it. The indictment also accuses Hutchins of creating the malware. Authorities said the malware was first made available in early 2014, and “marketed and distributed through AlphaBay, a hidden service on the Tor network.” The US Department of Justice announced in July that the AlphaBay “darknet” marketplace was shut down after an international law enforcement effort. Hutchins’ arraignment was postponed Thursday in US District Court in Las Vegas by a magistrate judge who gave him until Friday afternoon to determine if he wants to hire his own lawyer. Hutchins was in Las Vegas for Def Con, an annual cybersecurity conference that ended Sunday. On Wednesday, Hutchins madecomments on Twitter that suggested he was at an airport getting ready to board a plane for a flight home. He never left Nevada. Jake Williams, a respected cybersecurity researcher, said he found it difficult to believe Hutchins is guilty. The two men have worked on various projects, including training material for higher education for which the Briton declined payment. “He’s a stand-up guy,” Williams said in a text chat. “I can’t reconcile the charges with what I know about him.” A Justice Department spokesman confirmed the 22-year-old Hutchins was arrested Wednesday in Las Vegas. Officer Rodrigo Pena, a police spokesman in Henderson, near Las Vegas, said Hutchins spent the night in federal custody in the city lockup. Andrew Mabbitt, a British digital security specialist who had been staying in Las Vegas with Hutchins, said he and his friends grew worried when they got “radio silence” from Hutchins for hours. The worries deepened when Hutchins’ mother called to tell him the young researcher hadn’t made his flight home. Mabbitt said he eventually found Hutchins’ name on a detention centre website. News of his indictment Thursday left colleagues scrambling to understand what happened. “We don’t know the evidence the FBI has against him, however we do have some circumstantial evidence that he was involved in that community at the time,” said computer security expert Rob Graham. The big question is the identity of the co-defendant in the case, whose name is redacted in the indictment. Why was it blacked out? “Maybe the other guy testified against him,” said Graham. The co-defendant allegedly advertised the malware online. Hutchins is accused of creating and transmitting the programme. Williams, the president of Rendition Infosec, speculated that the co-defendant might have been caught up in the takedown of AlphaBay and framed Hutchins in exchange for a plea deal. The problem with software creation is that often a programme includes code written by multiple programmers. Prosecutors might need to prove that Hutchins wrote code with specific targets. Williams pointed to a July 13, 2014 tweet by Hutchins, whose moniker is @MalwareTechBlog, asking if anyone had a sample of Kronos to share. “I’ve written code that other people have injected malware into,” said Graham. “We know that large parts of Kronos were written by other people.” One legal scholar who specialises in studying computer crime said it’s unusual, and problematic, for prosecutors to go after someone simply for writing or selling malware — as opposed to using it to further a crime. “This is the first case I know of where the government is prosecuting someone for creating or selling malware but not actually using it,” said Orin Kerr, a law professor at George Washington University. Kerr said it will be difficult to prove criminal intent.  “It’s a constant issue in criminal law — the helping of people who are committing a crime,” Kerr said. “When is that itself a crime?”....

Published at: 2017-08-04 00:00:05