The New Nation - Internet Edition

NATION BUSINESS REPORT

Standard Chartered Bank has celebrated the first anniversary of Saadiq, the Islamic Financial Services of the bank.

Sandeep Bose, Regional Head of Consumer Banking of Standard Chartered Bank inaugurated the programme held at a hotel in the city on Monday night.

Kamran Sunjoy Rahman, Head of Islamic Banking and Sarwat Ahmad, Senior Manager of Corporate Affairs also spoke on the occasion.

In his speech Sandeep Bose focused on the current trends of Islamic banking across the world.

He said, "Bangladesh being the key market Standard Chartered launched Saadiq last year. And, from its inception, Saadiq has been offering a range of Shariah-compliant financial solutions to the customers through our world-class service infrastructure.

All Saadiq policies and services are free of interest application. All Saadiq customers will also enjoy the bank's ATM network, online Banking, and 24 hour call centre facilities. In addition to the network of 25 branches and over 300 ATMs (including the DBBL network) across the country, currently there is also one dedicated Islamic Banking Centre in Bangladesh at 102 Gulshan avenue, Dhaka 1212."

"We have a team of experienced banking professionals for our global Saadiq operations based in the UAE. Our local team works in consultation with and guidance from the Group Islamic banking tea and is responsible for keeping Saadiq products compliant with Shariah requirements as approved by the Bank's Global Shariah Supervisory Committee. ," he added.

In the programme the audience were introduced to the products currently being offered under the deposit and financing umbrella, namely Saadiq Current Account, Saadiq Savings Account, Saadiq Term Deposits, Saadiq Personal Finance, Saadiq Auto Finance, Saadiq Credit Card.

Kamram Sunjoy Rahman said, "In addition to the current products, we are going to launch two new products--Saadiq Home Finance and Saadiq Business Finance soon."

The launching of a brand awareness campaign titled, 'Saadiq- Around the Country in 40 Days" was also inaugurated at the programme to familiarise people with the different aspects of Saadiq.

The programme was attended by a number of customers of the bank, representatives of Bangladesh Bank and other regulatory bodies and the senior officials of the bank. Four customers of the bank were also awarded at the function.