About the Office

Khulna Office is one of the pre-liberation offices of Bangladesh Bank. This office started functioning from April, 1954 as a branch of the then State Bank of Pakistan and after liberation it continued functioning as a regional office of the Bangladesh Bank. The office is a KPI (1/Kha Class) installation and located at the heart of the city- east to the Saheed Hadis Park, a popular landmark. An Executive Director heads it.

Jurisdiction and Main Function: The jurisdiction of Bangladesh Bank, Khulna Office comprises of the administrative districts of Khulna, Bagerhat, Satkhira, Jashore, Narail, Jhenidah, Magura and Gopalgonj. Limited banking and cash related services are rendered to banks situated at Kushtia, Chuadanga and Meherpur districts also at times. The office acts as the bank of banks as well as supervises and monitors the activities of Scheduled Banks, Financial Institutions and Money Changers under its jurisdiction as per policies and guidelines issued by the head office. It also looks after proper implementation of various initiatives and guidelines issued by BBHO by banks and FIs.

Public Services: Side by side above mentioned activities, the office renders some direct services to general public such as: Exchanging value of soiled, mutilated, torn notes and coins, Receiving money (VAT, Tax etc) on behalf of government through Challan, Selling of Prize Bonds and Sanchay Patra (Savings Certificates), Selling of commemorative notes/coinage, Addressing complaints received against Banks/FIs or their employees including BB employees through CIPC. Moreover, providing with requested information as requested by general public or different entities under the Right to Information Act is also a public service rendered by the bank.

General Functions of Various Departments of the Office:
Except those mentioned above, important functions of different sections or departments of the office are discussed in brief hereunder:

Administration Department -1

The Administration Department -1 of the office works on employee and office management as per policies, rules, regulations and guidelines received from the Human Resources Department 1 and 2 of Bangladesh Bank, Head Office. Amongst these functions, activities related to transfer/posting, discharging from duties, retirement and related benefits, salary and allowances, disciplinary actions, relevant correspondences and all out activities concerning security of the office premises are worthy of mention. Moreover, physical asset management of the office like purchase and maintenance of computer or furniture etc are done by the department. Sections/Units of the department include establishment section, payment section, dead-stock section, ICT cell, Central Receiving and Dispatching Section (CR&D) and Security Management Unit.

Administration Department -2

The Administration Department -2 of the office works on employee facilities as per policies, rules, regulations and guidelines issued by the head office from time to time. Physical asset purchase, maintenance and repairing, payment of employee advances, providing medical facilities for employees, quarter and guest house management are comparatively important. Building Project Section, Advance Section, Medical Section, Engineering Section, Welfare Section, Stationary and Old Records Sections comprise and co-ordinate each other in the Administration Department -2.

Department of Banking Inspection

The Department of Banking Inspection of Khulna Office, through its 4 (four) wings, conducts several onsite inspections and ensures compliance by the banks and FIs located in the districts under the office’s jurisdiction thereof: namely comprehensive inspections, core risk inspections, special inspections, foreign exchange and foreign trade related inspections. Officials of the department follow directives and guidelines as received from the head office.

Besides, each of the wings performs some special tasks as assigned. For example, Wing-1 deals with the responsibilities of Task force for Non Performing Loan Recovery; Wing-2 looks after hosting different training programs and workshops arranged locally or in collaboration with Bangladesh Bank Training Academy (BBTA) or Bangladesh Institute of Bank Management (BIBM); Wing-3 conducts the functions entrusted upon the office for the Divisional Task Force on Combating Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing; and Wing-4 provides requested information by other agencies like the honorable court, law enforcement agencies, DUDOK and NBR.

List of Banks and Non Bank Financial Institutions (NBFIs) allocated to the four wings of the department is as under:

Foreign Exchange Policy Department

The Foreign Exchange Policy Department of Khulna Office oversees the activities of Authorized Dealer Bank Branches (59), Money Changers (13) and Limited Money Changers (12) located in the districts under the office’s jurisdiction. The department performs assigned duties under the purview of the Foreign Exchange Regulations Act 1947 and other related rules, regulations, guidelines, circulars and circular letters. Close monitoring of export proceeds repatriation and whether goods have been duly imported against import payments and necessary actions thereof; Ensuring proper reporting of such transactions and other cash foreign currency transactions; maintaining relationship with other stake holders for country interest and supervising foreign trade in order for combating trade based money laundering are the priorities of the department. In addition to monitoring of cross-border inward and outward remittances the department also either gives approval or forwards issues to Bangladesh Bank head office on case-to-case basis for Foreign exchange Transactions as required upon requests from banks, money changers, individuals or other entities. Besides representation of the office in the border trade related committees of customs authority and providing necessary information to Banking Inspection Department (if required) of the office as per guidance and direction of the authority are some important job responsibility of the department.�

Agricultural Credit Department

To ensure proper implementation of the annual agricultural and rural credit policy in the eight districts under the office’s jurisdiction, the Agricultural Credit Department of the office maintains close contact with the lead banks (as nominated by Bangladesh Bank) in respective districts. Officials of the department attend the monthly meetings of District Agricultural Credit Committee as observers, prepare reports and statements thereby, and conduct on-site inspection of agricultural credit (such as credits disbursed under subsidized rate policy, under different refinance schemes or credits disbursed through Microcredit Financing Institutions- MFIs and agent banking). In addition to this, the department conducts special inspections upon complaint received from clients on agricultural credit and arranges for the quarterly meeting with banks on agricultural credit. Moreover, as per policy, ensuring proper use of agricultural credit through direct contact with farmers via mobile monitoring in each quarter is an important task of the department. ��

Financial Inclusion Cell

Core responsibility of the cell is to identify segment of population (under the office’s jurisdiction) deprived of financial services and providing necessary suggestions and guidelines for ensuring their financial inclusion. Other activities include:

1. Promoting and motivating opening, monitoring and supervision of no frill accounts �(i.e. accounts with 10/-, 50/- or 100/- taka)
2. Monitoring and Supervision of Agent banking activities.
3. Supervision of school banking accounts.
4. Arranging meetings/seminars/workshops for increasing financial literacy among the public including celebration of Financial Literacy Day in March every year.

SME and Special Programs Department

This department is entrusted with the responsibilities of monitoring, supervision, conducting on-site inspection and compliance thereof on SME sector lending by banks under the jurisdiction of the office. Besides arranging for quarterly meeting with representatives from Banks and FIs, searching for potential SME clusters, organizing meetings and workshops for SME Entrepreneurs and bankers are important functions of the department.

The Women Entrepreneur Unit of the department guides banks and FIs under the office’s jurisdiction regarding monitoring, supervising and appraisal of SME loans among the Women Entrepreneurs. Moreover the unit arranges for meetings and workshops with bankers and women entrepreneurs to address their requirements and finding possible solutions.

Customer Interest Protection Cell (CIPC)

In safeguarding the interest of customers and in combating fraudulent activities in banks and FIs under the office’s jurisdiction, the Customer Interest Protection Cell (CIPC) of Khulna Office does the following functions:

1. Receiving customer complaints from aggrieved individuals (i.e. depositors, borrowers, remitters and such) against banks or FIs and taking corrective measures as per existing laws, rules and regulations
2. Providing the aggrieved individuals with comprehensive advocacy required.
3. Taking initiatives for increasing public awareness on financial matters.

Aggrieved individuals may lodge their complaints either in writing (to Executive Director, Bangladesh Bank, Khulna Office, Khulna 9100) or through email to cipc.khulna@bb.org.bd

Banking Department

The Banking Department of the office looks after required functions to provide services to banks and public related to financial transactions. The activities are done in close collaboration with the cash department of the office.

1. Prizebond and Sanchayparta Section

Selling of Sanchaypatra (National Savings Certificate), encashment of the same, assisting in changing bank details, nominee or other permissible information in the database, transferring the savings certificate in the name of a deceased person’s nominee, issuance of duplicate savings certificate, issuance of investment and source tax related certificates and reimbursing scheduled banks for the face value and profits of savings certificates as claimed by themselves are the main functions of the section. Additionally, selling and repurchase of prizebonds with the help of cash department and disbursement of claims of prizebond �draw winners along with source tax related certification are also done by the section.

2. Public Accounts Department

The Public Accounts Department works for collecting value of cheques against savings certificate purchase by public and challans, depositing collected money to government accounts, direct depositing to IBAS++ via A-Challan and taking needful actions for cash transactions with the postal department. Besides, this department preserves and verifies approved signatures of different govt. entities for financial transactions (like Bangladesh Police, Bangladesh army, RAB, Accounts Office, VAT, Tax , Customs and Excise Department) for enabling transactions. The department also works for Income Tax refund related activities and BACH or EFT related functions.

3. Currency Section

Ensuring availability of fresh and re-issue notes in the market through different commercial banks and arranging necessary actions for destruction of mutilated or non-issue bank notes is the core responsibility of the section. Besides govt. remittance transactions, selling of commemorative notes and collaborating with cash department are also the responsibilities of the section.

4. Claims Section

All functions related to prevention of counterfeit notes and providing exchange value to public against mutilated, soiled or burnt notes are done through this section. Moreover, arranging for quarterly meeting with different stake holders and disseminating necessary guidelines for prevention of counterfeit notes and creating public awareness on related issues are also important job responsibilities of the section

5. Deposit Accounts Department

The Deposit Accounts Department performs the function of bank of bankers and helps them in running accounts with the central bank through collecting, posting, balancing and authorizing cheques. Moreover, as a safe custodian, the department receives from, safeguards thereby and returns valuables to banks, customs authority, postal department and such.

Cash Department

In Collaborating with the Banking Department and through proper vault management, the cash department of the office works for providing fresh or re-issue notes to banks, receiving re-issue and non-issue notes as deposits from banks and sorting the same, destructing sorted non-issue notes, maintaining leasers and accounting books for the above, communicating the information to the Department of Currency Management of Bangladesh Bank, Head Office on daily basis and assisting in note circulation management thereby. In addition to this, receiving money from public for challan or selling of prizebond or commemorative notes is also performed by cash department.