Foreign Exchange Banking of Export Import Bank Bangladesh

Executive Summary

The Export Import Bank of Bangladesh is an Islamic Shariah based commercial Bank, which is publicly listed and committed to provide high quality financial services to the country. The bank markets the Visa Islamic card, the first Islamic credit card in the country.

I am here to carry out a market research on the future prospect of the card. I had worked as an intern in the credit card division of the bank for a period of twelve weeks.

During the period, I have created a questionnaire, prepared a sample of respondents, categorized them into ten categories and carried out a survey to sample the response from each category. Then I came up with ten separate hypotheses for each category and used the data collected from each category to carry out an analysis and determine the results for each category. I used a multitude of statistical tests to reach the goal.

Finally, I summed up the results to provide the bank with some constructive recommendation on the subject. For the convenience of the readers, I have divided the report into two parts. The first part details the structure, organogram, history and the functioning of the bank. The second part deals with the actual data collection, analysis and recommendation. The results are tabulated and represented graphically. I hope the recommendation will help the EXIM bank move forward with the card and make my effort a worthy success.

Introduction to EXIM Bank Limited

Company Overview

The EXIM Bank Ltd. is an Islamic Shariah based commercial Bank, which is publicly listed and committed to provide high quality financial services to contribute to the growth of G.D.P. (Gross Domestic Product) of the country through stimulating trade & commerce, accelerating the pace of industrialization, boosting up export, creating employment opportunity for the educated youth, poverty alleviation, raising standard of living of the limited income group and over all socio-economic development of the country.

The Bank offers full range of Personal, Corporate, International Trade, Foreign Exchange, Lease Finance and Capital Market Services. EXIM Bank Limited is the preferred choice in banking for its friendly and personalized services, cutting edge technology, tailored solutions for business needs, global reach in trade and commerce and high yield on investments, assuring Excellence in Banking Services.

Historical Background

The Export Import Bank of Bangladesh Limited, popularly known as EXIM Bank is a private commercial bank that operates banking operation by maintaining the Islamic Shariah and principles regarding the business transactions. The Bank was established on 2 June, 1999 as a private sector banking company under the company act, 1991 and incorporated as a public limited company under the company act, 1994. It started its operation on 3 August 1999 with an authorized capital of Tk.1 billion (1000 million) divided into 10 million ordinary shares of Tk.100 each. The initial paid up capital of the bank was Tk.225 million, fully subscribed by 28 sponsors. Initially the Bank started its operation as a private commercial Bank, but later on the Bank has taken up the challenge to start Islamic Banking Operations and migrated all of its conventional banking operation into Shariah based Islamic banking operations after obtaining approval from Bangladesh Bank on July 01, 2004. The Bank went for public issue of shares in the year 2004 and its shares are listed with Dhaka Stock Exchange (September 26, 2004) and Chittagong Stock Exchange (September 04, 2004).

Initially the bank was known as the EXIM Bank Limited, which stands for “Bangladesh Export Import Bank limited”. But for some legal constraints the bank has to change the name and according to the proposed name of the Governor of Central Bank at that time it was named as the “Export Import Bank of Bangladesh Limited” or in short EXIM Bank Limited.

Management of the bank is vested in a board of directors of 22 members headed by the chairman. The managing director is the chief executive. The bank finances export and import businesses and also conducts traditional commercial banking activities by maintaining the Islamic Shariah regarding the business. The commercial Banking activities of the Bank consist of services including mobilizing deposits, providing investment facilities, discounting bills, conducting money transfer, foreign exchange transactions and providing services.

With the pragmatic decision and management directives in the operational activities, the bank has earned a secured and distinctive position in the banking industry in terms of performance, growth, and excellent management. This organization has achieved customers’ confidence immediately after its establishment. Within this short time the bank has been successful in positioning itself as progressive and dynamic financial institution in the country. This is now widely acclaimed by the business community, from small entrepreneur to big merchant and conglomerates, including top rated corporate and foreign investors, for modern and innovative ideas and financial solution.

At first, the head office of EXIM Bank was situated in Rajuk Avenue of Motijheel. However, in mid 2009 the bank shifted its head office from Motijheel to Gulshan-1. The Bank currently has 50 branches all over the country, and employs around 2000 employees. It has an authorized capital of 3500 million and a paid up capital of 2677.80 million. Moreover, at the end of 2008 its profit after taxes amounted to 1096,627,046 BDT, and its total assets amounted to 68,446,464,000 BDT.

Founders

The founder chairman of EXIM bank, Late Mr. Shahjahan Kabir had a long experience of working as a competent banker. The entrepreneurs who helped him set up the company were major industrialists who were extremely successful in their respective businesses. Their success came from their intelligence, hard work, initiatives and their talent in entrepreneurship.

Mr. Alamgir Kabir, the advisor of EXIM bank, and the Managing Director Mr. Mohammad Liakotullah had long experience of working in the financial sector, and since the beginning has effectively led the company with their pragmatic decision making and their management directives in operational activities. Mr. Md. Nazrul Islam Mazumder, one of the founders of the company and the elected Chairman, is an honorable and religious man who is highly respected in the financial community for his competence and dedication. On several occasions he has received accolades and awards from the business community for his inspirational leadership.

Mission, Vision, Objectives and Strategies

Vision

EXIM Bank’s vision is captured in the phrase ‘Together Towards Tomorrow’. The company believes in achieving close relations with its customers and working together with them, in its march on the road of growth and progress. To achieve its goal, the company -believes in pursuit of excellence at all stages and a climate of continuous improvement because the line of excellence is never ending.

Mission Statement

The bank mission spans across multiple dimensions, these are:

•       To be the finest bank in the banking arena of Bangladesh under the Shariah guidelines.
•       To maintain corporate and business ethics.
•       To become a trusted repository of customers’ money and their financial advisor.
•       To make the bank’s stock superior and rewarding to the share holders.
•       To have a sound capital base.
•       To display team spirit and professionalism.
•       To provide excellent quality customer service
•       To provide high quality financial services in export and import trade.
•       To fulfill its social commitment by expanding its charitable and humanitarian activities.

Objectives

The objectives of EXIM bank encompasses of many critical aspects as defined by the following:

•       To receive, borrow or raise money through deposits, loans or otherwise
•       To give guarantees and indemnities in respect of all debts and contracts.
•       To play a vital role in human resources development and employment generation.
•       To carry on business of buying and selling currency, gold and other valuable assets.
•       To extend counseling and advisory services to entrepreneurs in utilizing credit facilities of the bank.
•       To earn a normal profit for meeting operational expenses, building of reserves, and expansion of activities to cover wider geographical area.

Current Strategy

The main focus of EXIM bank’s strategy is distinguishing itself as a bank following Islamic Shariah. As a matter of policy, the bank conducts it businesses on the principles of Mudraba, Murabaha, Bai-Muazzal and “hire-purchase” transactions, as approved by Bangladesh Bank. The bank is an interest free, Shariah based bank and its mode of operations therefore is substantially different from that of other commercial banks.

Furthermore, as its name suggests, the bank’s strategy puts major emphasis on the export and import activities of the Bangladeshi business community, or in other words, on the operations of its Foreign Exchange department. They provide financial services of high quality for export-import trade, and this has been one of its major strengths, and has proved to be the driving factor behind the bank’s continuing success. Currently, the bank has also focused on the card sector. The bank also pioneered the concept of the Islamic card.

Organizational Structure

The company is headed by the elected chairman Mr. Nazrul Islam Mazumder. The Board of Directors (BOD) is the apex body of the bank, and consists of around 11 members elected from the twenty-two Sponsors of the bank. The BOD is responsible for overall supervision and for providing direction on policy matters. Accountable to the Board of Directors is the Managing Director. The power of general supervision and the control of affairs of the bank are exercised by the managing director who also acts as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO). At present Mr. Kazi Mashihur Rahman is carrying out the responsibilities as Managing Director.

There is a strict chain of command in the bank. The hierarchy starts with the Chairman, then the Managing Director, Additional MD, Deputy MD, Senior Executive Vice    -President (SEW), Executive Vice President (EVP), followed by Senior Vice President (SVP), Vice President (VP) and Assistant Vice President (AVP). Reporting to them are the Senior Principal Officer, Principal Officer, Executive Officer, Officer, Junior Officer, Assistant Officer. Finally, at the bottom of the ladder there are the Trainee Officers.

The bank has several departments in its 50 branches all over the country. Its three main departments are General Banking, Investment, and Foreign Exchange. Supporting these departments is the Human Resources Management Department.

Major Functions & Description of Its Business

EXIM Bank Ltd’s major functions can be divided into general banking, foreign exchange and investment. And secondary activities such as marketing, human resource management, internal audit etc.

The fundamental function of EXIM bank is to provide customers with a variety of banking products which are personalized to their specific needs through deliverance of efficient service. The starting point of ail the banking operations is General Banking; this is one of the most basic functions of any commercial bank. This department provides day to day services to customers with regards to opening of new accounts, handling cash deposits and cash withdrawals, remittance of funds, issuance of check books, bank drafts, pay orders, telephone transfers (TT) and credit cards. In Islamic Banking, collecting deposits from customers is regarded from a different standpoint then in conventional banking. Therefore, EXIM bank takes deposits from customers, utilizes it through investment, and gives the depositors a dividend of the ‘profit’ made from its operations; rather than an interest on deposits. Next, the Investment department provides loans or credits to individuals, firms or industries. However, since this is an Islamic bank so credit here is viewed as ‘investment’ rather than loan. The philosophy is that, the bank is not providing credit; rather it is making an investment and becoming an owner in the business through paying for the purchase of equipment, or expansion of business, or building of facilities. Therefore it is getting a share of the profits on the investment made, rather than charging an interest on loan.

Finally, the most important function of Exim Bank deals with the facilitation of export, import and Foreign Exchange trading. This is the heart of Exim Bank, the most crucial of all activities. With the advent of globalization, internal trade has become a necessity for all countries and their business communities; this is where the bank plays a major role by providing a wide range services in order to ensure smooth and credible international trade between importers-exporters, timely delivery of goods, and timely payment and receipts on imports and exports. For this purpose, Exim Bank Ltd carries out different functions such as LC opening, lodgment, bill collection or payment, extension of credit on LCs, and finally retirement of documents. In addition, the foreign exchange section of EXIM is also engaged in such activities as the endorsement of US dollars in passports of clients traveling abroad, issuance of travelers cheque, foreign demand draft etc.

The General Banking Department

The general banking department plays the most basic and vital role in the bank with regards to deposit mobilization through several types of accounts and schemes. It is also engaged in providing services to customers with relation to opening of accounts, cash deposits and cash withdrawals, remittance of funds, issuance of check books, telephone transfers (TT), bank drafts, pay orders, etc. they also pioneered the concept of the Islamic card.

Sections under General Banking

The department is divided up in several sections for the proper functioning and customer convenience. These sections under general banking department at EXIM Bank are:

•       Accounts opening section
•       Deposit section
•       Remittance section
•       Bills and clearing section
•       FDR section
•       Credit card division

The Credit Card Division

EXIM bank has a separate credit card division that is headquartered in the Printer’s Building, Dainik Bangla, Motijheel, separate from the other divisions. The major card product is the Visa Islamic card. The cards are available both as classic and gold and in local and dual currencies. EXIM has pioneered the concept of Islamic card.

The Salient Features of the card are-

•        First Shariah Based Islamic Card by any Islamic Bank in Bangladesh.
•        Lowest Profit Rate in the Card Market
•        Simple Profit Rate
•        No Hidden Charge
•        Dual Currency Facility in One Card
•        Free Supplementary Card
•        24 Hours Customer Service
•        Auto Debit Payment Facility
•        Worldwide Acceptance
•        Instant card message service in mobile

Future Direction of EXIM Bank

EXIM Bank currently uses branch-based banking software named PcBank 2000 in all of its branches which is commonly used by most of the private and public banks. In order to replace this software with centralized Shariah Based Islami Banking software, the bank management has made an agreement with TEMENOS Switzerland to implement its world renowned Core Banking Software T24. This centralized software will be capable of providing all sorts of electronic banking service to the customers through various electronic delivery channels. The bank is expected to complete the migration to this software in all of its branches by the year 2010.

SWOT Analysis of EXIM Bank

SWOT Analysis is the detailed study of an organization’s exposure and potential in perspective of its strength, weakness, opportunity and threat. This facilitates the organization to make their existing line of performance and also foresee the future to improve their performance in comparison to their competitors. As though this tool, an organization can also study its current position, it can also be considered as an important tool for making changes in the strategic management of its activities.

Strengths:

•       EXM Bank has already established a favorable reputation in the banking industry in the country, as well as among customers and regulators. It is one of the leading private commercial bank in Bangladesh.
•       In Export Business EXIM Bank provides their services successfully and have achieved goodwill among the Shariah based banks. In this sector the Bank is working with its efficiency and integrity. As an expertise and Shariah based banking it is publicly reliable for their service.
•       EXIM Bank foreign exchange department communicate with foreign banks frequently and quickly.
•       EXIM Bank has a very competent and experienced top Management. The bank has already shown a tremendous growth in the profits and deposits sector.
•       EXIM Bank has an interactive corporate culture. The working environment in all of its branches is informal, friendly and interactive. There are no hidden barriers in communication between superior and subordinates. The corporate culture serves as a big motivation factor for the employees.
•       Service charges of EXIM Bank are comparatively reasonable then many other private banks in the industry.
•       EXIM Bank has low Cost of Fund and its currently provides online banking service to customers for a minimal fee.

Weaknesses:

•       In term of promotion and advertisement, EXIM Bank is totally negligent. There is very limited advertising and publicity of the banks products and activities.
•       The bank has not any long term strategies of whether it wants to focus on retail banking or corporate banking. It is crucial to determine its future direction with a strong and feasible strategic plan.
•       There is no separate customer care department, which can work solely with customer care and for continuous improvement of services.
•       Compare to other competitors, such as multinational banks, the service quality of EXIM Bank is rather poor.
•       There is a lack of sufficient manpower in most of its departments. This results into more workload for existing employees and creates severe problem when any employee is absent, or when some employees are sent for training by the company.

Opportunities:

•       Export Import Bank of Bangladesh Limited has a lot of growth opportunities in the consumer banking, money market operations & also export-based industries due to global economic recovery.
•       EXIM Bank can introduce ATM facilities as well as different types of debit cards and credit cards. Similar actions from its competitors have tremendous, positive response from consumers. So this is an opportunity for EXIM Bank.
•       Retail banking and small & medium enterprise (SME) banking can provide huge opportunity for the company. Opportunity derived from retail banking lies in the fact that the country’s increased population is learning to adopt consumer finance. So a wide variety of retail products has an easily penetrable and large market.
•       It does not foresee exciting any of its business lines since it maintains balanced portfolio & it is well-positioned to increase out-thrust into diversified interests.
•       EXIM has a chance to increase invest in remittance business.

Threats:

•       The major challenge of EXIM Bank is that there are already many financial institutions sharing the same size of the pie. As a result there is intense competition for generating business. Furthermore, due to the dual effect of competition & reduced rates (to the benefit of the borrower) they will find it challenging to bring their cost of fund to an acceptable level & yet maintain our high level of quality assets in our books & ensure our NPA(Non Performing Assets) is at an acceptable level.
•       The emergence of several private & foreign banks within the post few years offering similar or more services with less or free charge for the facilities can be a major threat for the bank.
•       Recession of global economy and its impact on Bangladesh’s foreign trade is big threat, because foreign exchange operations constitute a major portion of banks activities and revenues.
•       Higher employee compensation packages offered by other private banks also pose a considerable threat. This can result into many qualified and competent employees leaving EXIM Bank for other competitor bank, which impact the organization as a whole.
•       Strict Government control of industrial credit is a threat

Assessment of Companies Current State of Operations

The bank achieved significant progress through continuous growth in all the areas of banking operations in the year review. It has successfully mobilized Tk.57,586.99 million deposits from depositors and has increase it’s investment (general) to Tk.53,637.68 million as on 31^st December, 2008 through it’s 42 branches. The total income and expenditure of the bank were Tk.8, 356.82 million and Tk.5, 838.43 million respectively during the period under review. It earned an operating profit of Tk.2, 518.39 million with an annual growth rate of 31.98% over that of the previous year. The return on asset (ROA) after tax was 1.83%.  The capital and reserve of the bank as on 31^st of December, 2008 stood at Tk.4, 989.20 million including paid up capital of Tk.2, 677.75 million. The bank also made general provision in unclassified investments-general and SMA of the bank, amounting TK.555.85 million.

Introduction to Project

Credit card is a fast growing banking product in the country. The widespread use of internet and increase in the network of the credit card brands in the country has brought the convenience of the credit card within the reach of the general people. It is no longer the domain of an elite few. However, here remains a glitch. Bangladesh is a country where the majority of the people are Muslim. Many people embrace the concept of credit card, but stay away, due to the interest involved. The EXIM bank has pioneered the concept of an Islamic card – a card that conforms to the ethos of Islam.

I am here to carry out a market research on the future prospect of the Visa Islamic card of EXIM. The idea is to carry out a survey among ten different categories of people (the major target market of the Visa Islamic card) to find out the future prospect of their novel concept. I came up with ten separate hypotheses for each category and used the data collected from each category to carry out an analysis and determine the results for each category. I used a multitude of statistical tests to reach the goal. Finally, I summed up the results to provide the bank with some constructive recommendation on the subject.

Objectives of the Study

The purposes of this report cognates the internship purpose. The internship objective was to gather practical knowledge and experiencing the corporate working environment with the close approximation to the business firms and the experts who are leading and making strategic decisions to enhance the growth of a financial institution. To this regard this report will contemplate the knowledge and experience accumulated from internship program.

The objectives of preparing the report cover the following area –

1.   To find out what people think about credit cards in general
2.   To find out what people want from credit cards
3.   To find out what people think about the religion issue and EXIM’s solution
4.   To find out is they will prefer an Islamic card over a traditional one

Significance of the Study

Bangladesh is a country where majority of the population is Muslim. Since Islam forbids interest, many Muslims keep away from the credit cards on religion issue. The concept of Visa Islamic Card will allow EXIM to tap into that market. Moreover, since, the card has all the traditional features of credit cards, EXIM will also be able to tap on the traditional market.

Literature Review

A credit card is a system of payments named after the small plastic card issued to users of the system. It is a card which entitles its holder to buy goods and services based on the holder’s promise to pay for these goods and services later on. The issuer of the card grants a line of credit to the consumer or the user from which the user can borrow money for payment to a merchant or as a cash advance to the user.

The main benefit to each customer is obviously convenience. Compared to debit cards and checks, a credit card allows small short-term loans to be quickly made to customers who do not need to calculate the balance remaining before every transaction, provided the total charges do not exceed the maximum credit line for the card. Credit cards also provide more fraud protection than debit cards and cash. In the UK for example, the bank is jointly liable with the merchant for purchases of defective products over £100. (wikipedia.org/wiki/Credit_card)

Many credit cards offer rewards and benefits packages, such as offering enhanced product warranties at no cost, free loss or damage coverage on new purchases, and points which may be redeemed for cash, products or airline tickets. Additionally, carrying a credit card may be a convenience to some customers since it eliminates the need to carry cash for most purposes.

Credit card is a fast growing banking product in the country. The widespread use of internet and increase in the network of the credit card brands in the country has brought the convenience of the credit card within the reach of the general people. It is no longer the domain of an elite few. However, there remains a glitch. Bangladesh is a country where the majority of the people are Muslim. Many people embrace the concept of credit card, but stay away, due to the interest involved. The EXIM bank has pioneered the concept of an Islamic card – a card that conforms to the ethos of Islam.

I am here to carry out a market research on the future prospect of the Visa Islamic card of EXIM. The idea is to carry out a survey among ten different categories of people (the major target market of the Visa Islamic card) to find out the future prospect of their novel concept. I came up with ten separate hypotheses for each category and used the data collected from each category to carry out an analysis and determine the results for each category. I used a multitude of statistical tests to reach the goal. Finally, I summed up the results to provide the bank with some constructive recommendation on the subject.

The objectives of preparing the report cover the following area –

•       To find out what people think about credit cards in general
•       To find out what people want from credit cards
•       To find out what people think about the religion issue and EXIM’s solution
•       To find out is they will prefer an Islamic card over a traditional one

The ten categories of the respondents I researched with include the following:

•       Government employees
•       Corporate employees
•       University faculties
•       Expatriate
•       Doctors
•       Business people
•       Bankers
•       Students
•       Journalist

The Age of the Respondent can be broken down into four groups – the respondents under 20 years of age, the respondents within 25-29 years of age, the respondents within 30-45 years of age and the respondents over 45 years of age,

The age distribution is provided in the table below:

The distribution of the different occupation of the respondents is also shown below:

Scope

The scope of this report is limited to the overall description of the company, its services, and its position in the industry. The scope of the study is limited to organizational setup, functions, and performances. This study will be done mainly on the basis of experience and perception.

Hypothesis

In my internship period to the EXIM Bank Credit card division, I have tried to learn as much as possible. I have got the ideas about all the activities related to credit card. From my practical experience I found that Credit Card Division is the busiest place among all other division, since it’s getting very strong customer response. Day by day user of credit card is increasing and I want to know those people who like to use EXIM bank’s credit card and based on this I have been set my hypothesis as follows-

1. H0: Govt. employees do not want to carry credit cards

    H1: Govt. employees want to carry credit cards

2. H0: Corporate employees do not want to carry credit cards

    H1: Corporate employees want to carry credit cards.

3. H0: University faculties do not want to carry credit cards

    H1: University faculties want to carry credit cards

4. H0: Expatriate does not want to carry credit cards

     H1: Expatriate wants to carry credit cards

5. H0: Doctors do not want to carry credit cards

    H1: Doctors want to carry credit cards

6. H0: Business people do not want to carry credit cards

    H1: Business people want to carry credit cards

7. H0: Bankers do not want to carry credit cards

    H1: Bankers want to carry credit cards

8. H0: Journalist does not want to carry credit cards

    H1: Journalist wants to carry credit cards

9. H0: Students do not want to carry credit cards

    H1: Students want to carry credit cards

10. H0: Old people do not want to carry credit cards

      H1: Old People want to carry credit cards

Methodology

The data would be collected mainly through personal interview. Questionnaires would be used. Sample size would be 120.

A multitude of data analysis techniques will be used which will include graphical presentation, frequency, percentage, t-test, z-test and regression. The report will be presented in APA format.

Sources and Methods of Collecting Information

Primary Sources:

Primary data sources will be the officials of EXIM bank and general respondents from around the city in ten different categories.

Interview: For interview purpose appointment will be fixed with respective department heads and interview to be conducted.

Questionnaire Survey: Structured questionnaire have been developed for conducting the survey both for the Management staffs, other staffs and general respondents

Secondary Sources:

Sources of secondary data can be defined as:

a. Internal Sources –

•       Bank’s Annual Report
•       Group Business Principal manual
•       Group Instruction Manual (GIM) & Business Instruction Manual (BIM)
•       Prior research report
•       Any information and literature regarding the Banking sector

b. External Sources –

•       Different books and periodicals related to the banking sector
•       Bangladesh Bank Report
•       Newspapers
•       Website information

Sex of the Respondent

The following frequency table indicates the sex of the respondent. There were two options – Male and Female.

Interpretation: Out of 120 respondents male frequency level is 57 and for female is 63, whereas as per percentage, we can see that 46.3% are male and 52.5% are female.

Age of the Respondent

The following frequency table indicates the age of the responding. The options given are as follows- Under 20, 25-29, 30-45, above 45.

Interpretation: From the graph we can understand those people whose age is under 20 their frequency level was 8 and the percentage is 6.5, but those people age is 25-29 their frequency level is 30 and percentage level is 24.4. However, 47 is the frequency level of those people whose age is 30-45 and those people age is above 45 their frequency level is 35 and percentage is 28.5.

Occupation of the respondent:

The following frequency table indicates occupation of the responding.

Interpretation: Out of 120 respondents 13% was student, Govt .employees was 8.1%, corporate employee was 4.9%, university faculty was 5.7%, Expatriate was 11.4%, doctors was 20.3%, Business people was 2.4%, Bankers was 17.9 and finally journalist was 13.8%

Asked to the respondent- do you know any other than EXIM bank that offers an Islamic Card?

The following frequency table indicates occupation of the responding.

Interpretation: I asked to my target respondent that do you know any other than EXIM bank that offers an Islamic Card. Among of 120 respondent 60.2% people said they know EXIM bank’s Islamic credit card but 37.4% people said they do not know about EXIM bank’s credit card.

Asked to the respondent- Would you prefer an Islamic card over an existing one?

Interpretation: I asked to my target respondent that would you prefer an Islamic card over an existing one.  Among of the 120 respondent 60.2% people said they prefer EXIM bank’s Islamic credit card but 37.4% people said they do not prefer.

Asked to the respondent-Do you think EXIM bank is following Islamic banking norms?

Interpretation: I asked to my target respondent that do you think EXIM bank is following Islamic banking norms.  Among of the 120 respondent 60.2% people agreed with this statement and rest 37.4% people have said no.

Asked to the respondent-How much do you earn in a month?

Interpretation: I asked to my respondent that how much do you earn in month and I gave them four options, from the graph we can see that 37.4% people have said their income is in-between 31000-500000. 28.5% people said their income is above 500000 and 22.8% people have said their income is in-between 150000-30000. Moreover, 8.9% people have said they do not have any fixed income.

Asked to the respondent-Which bank have the best Islamic card?

Interpretation: From the graph we can see that EXIM bank is on top for credit card business followed by Islamic bank, DBBL and South East bank.

Asked to the respondent-EXIM bank credit card’s interest rate is lower than rival.

Interpretation: I asked to my target respondent that do you think EXIM bank credit card’s interest rate is lower than rival. 13.8% people were strongly agree with statement, 28.5% agree with this, 30.9% people are in neutral and 17.9% people disagree with this statement.

Asked to the respondent-EXIM bank’s credit card division is better than the close rivals.

Interpretation: I asked to my target respondent that EXIM bank’s credit card division is better than the close rivals. 16.3% people were strongly agree with statement, 23.6% agree with that, 24.4% people were in neutral and 26.0% people disagree with this statement.

Asked to the respondent-EXIM bank’s credit card division fees are well judged.

Interpretation: I asked to my target respondent that EXIM bank’s credit card division fees are well judged. 40.7% people were strongly agreed with statement, 3.3% people were in neutral and 13.0% people disagreed with this statement.

Asked to the respondent-EXIM bank’s credit card is convenient for your occupation.

Interpretation: I asked to my target respondent that EXIM bank’s credit card is convenient for your occupation. 28.5% people strongly said EXIM bank credit card is convenient for their occupation, in where 34.2% people agreed with the statement and 15.4% people were against with this statement.

Descriptive Statistics

Basic descriptive statistics are extremely important for knowing the central tendency of distribution and also the degree of dispersions of variables. Understanding such statistics also helped us to determine the skewness of the distribution of variables and hence helped us to gather more about the distribution of the population means.

Below I have shown the mean, median, mode, standard deviation, variance, Std. error of mean, skewness, std. error of skewness, maximum and minimum of all the variables mentioned in my questionnaire. The mean and median showed us the central tendency and the standard deviation showed us the dispersion.

Estimation of Sample Mean (T-Test)

I used one-sample student’s t test to estimate the sample means using 95% confidence level. The student’s t-test was perfected I simply assumed that the sample distribution was also normal.

For corporate employee: Actually I would like to know what corporate people think about EXIM bank Islamic card.

        My hypothesis is

• H0: People who know other than EXIM bank, they think EXIM bank does not provide best Islamic Card.
• H1: People who know other than EXIM bank, they think EXIM bank provides best Islamic Card.

• Value of alpha is .05

I have asked to the corporate employee that which bank do well in the Islamic credit card business and also asked them is they would like to use EXIM bank credit card, if we see  significant value from the table of this test, we find that significant level is .541 which is greater then .05. So here we say H0 is rejected and alternative hypothesis is accepted. It means that those who are corporate employee they think EXIM bank provide best Islamic card.

For Govt. employee:

My hypothesis is

• H0: People who know other than EXIM bank, they think EXIM bank does not provide best Islamic Card.
• H1: People who know other than EXIM bank, they think EXIM bank provides best Islamic Card.

I have asked to the Govt. employee that which bank do well in the Islamic credit card business and also asked them do you like use EXIM bank credit card, if we see F- value from the table of this test which is .073 and the significant value is .794 So here H0 is fail to rejected however, the significant of this test is .923. It means that those who are Govt. employee they think EXIM bank do not provide best Islamic card.

For Student:

My hypothesis is

• H0: People who know other than EXIM bank, they think EXIM bank does not provide best Islamic Card.
• H1: People who know other than EXIM bank, they think EXIM bank provides best Islamic Card.

I have asked to the students that which bank do well in the Islamic credit card business and also asked them do you like use EXIM bank credit card, if we see F- value from the table of this test which is .278 and the significant value is .606 and significant for the two tailed is .522. So here, H0 fail to reject. It means that those who are student they think EXIM bank do not provide best Islamic card

For University Faculty:

My hypothesis is

• H0: People who know other than EXIM bank, they think EXIM bank does not provide best Islamic Card.
• H1: People who know other than EXIM bank, they think EXIM bank provides best Islamic Card.

I have asked to the University Faculty mambers that which bank do well in the Islamic credit card business and also asked them do you like use EXIM bank credit card, if we see F- value from the table of this test which is 2.540 and the significant value is .172 and significant for the two tailed is .707. It means the value of F is grater then 1 and that is why I can say H1 is accepted so I can say EXIM bank provide best Islamic credit card.

For Expatriates:

My hypothesis is

• H0: People who know other than EXIM bank, they think EXIM bank does not provide best Islamic Card.
• H1: People who know other than EXIM bank, they think EXIM bank provides best Islamic Card.

I have asked to the Expatriates that which bank do well in the Islamic credit card business and also asked them do you like use EXIM bank credit card, if we see F- value from the table of this test which is .343 and the significant value is .569 and significant for the two tailed is .630. So here H0 is rejected and H1 is accepted. It means they think EXIM bank provides best Islamic credit card.

For doctor:

My hypothesis is

• H0: People who know other than EXIM bank, they think EXIM bank does not provide best Islamic Card.
• H1: People who know other than EXIM bank, they think EXIM bank provides best Islamic Card.

I have asked to the Doctors that which bank do well in the Islamic credit card business and also asked them do you like use EXIM bank credit card, if we see F- value from the table of this test which is 6.462 and the significant value is .018 and significant for the two tailed is .547. So here H0 is accepted and H1 is rejected. It means they think EXIM bank does not provide best Islamic credit card.

For Bankers:

My hypothesis is

• H0: People who know other than EXIM bank, they think EXIM bank does not provide best Islamic Card.
• H1: People who know other than EXIM bank, they think EXIM bank provides best Islamic Card.

I have asked to the Banker that which bank do well in the Islamic credit card business and also asked them do you like use EXIM bank credit card, if we see F- value from the table of this test which is 1.346 and the significant value is .260 and significant for the two tailed is .479. So here H0 is accepted and H1 is rejected. It means they think EXIM bank provides best Islamic credit card.

For Journalist:

My hypothesis is

• H0: People who know other than EXIM bank, they think EXIM bank does not provide best Islamic Card.
• H1: People who know other than EXIM bank, they think EXIM bank provides best Islamic Card.

I have asked to the Journalist that which bank do well in the Islamic credit card business and also asked them do you like use EXIM bank credit card, if we see F- value from the table of this test which is .192 and the significant value is .668 and significant for the two tailed is 1. So here H0 is rejected and H1 is accepted. It means they think EXIM bank provides best Islamic credit card.

Cross Table Analysis

Through this cross table analysis I have tried to see what my target respondent think about EXIM bank. For this I have asked some question which include the following

•       do you know any bank other than EXIM bank that offers Islamic credit card?
•       do you think EXIM bank is following Islamic banking norms?
•       would you prefer an Islamic card over a traditional one?

8.1% of student, 10.8% people of Govt. employee, 5.4% of corporate employee, 6.8% of University faculty, 13.5% of expatriate, 18.9% of doctor, Business people 4.1% of business people,  20.3% of bankers and Journalist 12.2% of journalist have said that they know other than EXIM bank issue Islamic credit card not only that but also they believe bank other than EXIM bank that offers an Islamic card, they prefer Islamic card over existing one and also they have said EXIM bank follows Islamic banking norms

Regression analysis

From this table we can see that the value of R is .455 and the value of r square is .207 it means that the model is not good, the model will be good if the value of R was near 1. So I can say that taking security money, credit limit and division fees of EXIM bank are not attractive.

Recommendation

With my little experience in bank, I observed and found out some aspects of their banking. On the basis of my observation I would like to recommend the following recommendations:

• EXIM Bank can pursue to Government high officials and can make a better relationship with them to get government fund in order to keep cost of fund low.
• EXIM Bank can open some more branches in strategically important place, especially where the card usage occurs more frequently. In this way that they can enhance their business volume.
• EXIM Bank can recruit some marketing officers and Executives in marketing Division who has some experience regarding credit card marketing.
• Quality of customer service also has am impact on business. The customer service at EXIM Bank is at acceptable level. However it is still far behind that of other multinational banks. If quality of customer service is improved, the customer base of the bank will increase a lot more.

•       The Bank can diversify its loan portfolio. EXIM Bank has no investment in transport sector. They can go for this highly potential sector in our country.
•       Proper communication regarding the products and services of the bank should be enforced. As a result confusions will be minimized and customer satisfaction will enhance.
•        The bank should give more attention on promotion and campaign activities.
•        The organogram of the bank is rigidly vertical. It should be flexible enough to cope with untoward situation.
•       The HRD should look into the matter that the branches are well staffed with the right people in the right position.
•       The bank should adopt more technological devices to provide better services and all the staff should be more helpful at the time of providing services to the customer.
•       The bank should try to arrange more training programs for their officials. Quality training will help the official to enrich them with more up to date knowledge.

Finally, EXIM Bank need to ensure that all the bank charges such as handling charges, courier charges, and amount of interest charged on package credit/ export cash credit/ machinery loans etc. against foreign trade, are as responsible as possible to provide a high perceived value to clients for the service its providing.

Limitations of the Study

An Internee has to complete the internship and prepare an internship report within a semester. In briefly, I faced following limitations during the time of preparing this report.

•       As per Bank’s compliance, as an intern I was unable to obtain indispensable experiences of different departments.
•       Due to time shortage, details of many aspects of the services of EXIM Bank may have to be skipped in this report.
•       One of the main barriers in writing this report would be the confidentiality of data. Though, I saw their internal procedure that is being used in processing and evaluating any documentary credit, but I was told strictly not to disclose that even in my internship report.
•       Time is an important issue in report writing. As a specific deadline for gathering all the necessary information, submission and observation was too short, it would be really tough to cope up with the time constraints.

Conclusion

Banking sector of Bangladesh has undergone dramatic change since the independence in 1971 and it is now considered to be one of the highly focused and compared to other sectors, more regular sector in the country. EXIM Bank is private sector bank having a small market share in the industry. Although it is a third generation bank facing govt. deposit restrictions, it has all the potentials to penetrate the market. If the weaknesses are addressed appropriately and opportunities are explored keeping in view the threats behind with a stable  and adroit management having regard to appropriate corporate governance and modern automatic technology, it is expected from EXIM Bank to advance up in the ladder of success in the coming years.

The main purpose of this report is to study “The future prospect of the Visa Islamic card of the EXIM bank.” Considering all the attributes which influence profit should be more effective. Due to the significant importance of those factors they can compete in the market in the near future.