The City Bank Limited; one of the oldest private Commercial Banks in Bangladesh

The City Bank Limited (CBL) is one of the oldest private Commercial Banks operating in Bangladesh. It is a top Bank among the oldest five Commercial Banks in the country which started their operations in 1983. The Bank started its journey on 27th March 1983 through opening its first branch at B.B Avenue Branch in the capital, Dhaka city. It was the visionary entrepreneurship of around 13 local businessmen who braved the immense uncertainties and risks with courage and zeal that made the establishment & forward march of the bank possible. Those sponsor directors commenced the journey with only Taka 3.4 crores worth of capital, which now is a respectable Taka 330.77 crore as capital and reserve.

The bank currently has 90 online branches and 10 SME service centres and 2 SME/Agri branch spread across the length & breadth of the country that include a full-fledged Islamic Banking branch. Besides these traditional delivery points, the bank is also very active in the alternative delivery area. It currently has 122 ATMs of its own; and ATM sharing arrangement with a partner bank that has more than 550 ATMs in place; SMS Banking; Interest Banking and so on. It already started its Customer Call Centre operation. The bank has a plan to end the current year with 200 own ATMs.

City Bank is the first bank in Bangladesh to have issued Dual Currency Credit Card. As the principal member of VISA international the bank issues both Local Currency (Taka) & Foreign Currency (US Dollar) card limits in a single plastic. VISA Debit Card is another popular product of the City Bank.

City Bank has launched American Express (AMEX) Credit Card and American Express (AMEX) Gold Credit card in November 2009. City Bank is the local caretaker of the brand and is responsible for all operations supporting the issuing of the new credit cards in Bangladesh.

City Bank is one of the largest corporate banks in the country with a current business model that heavily encourages and supports the growth of the bank in Retail and SME Banking. The bank is very much on its way to opening many independent SME centers across the country within a short time. The bank is also very active in the workers' foreign remittance business. It has strong tie-ups with major exchange companies in the Middle East, Europe, Far East & USA, from where thousands of individual remittances come to the country every month for disbursements through the bank's large network.