Setting up a new Branch: a CBL's approach

Abstract

The City Bank Ltd. (CBL) has started its journey in 1983 through opening its first branch at BangaBandhu Avenue in Dhaka. It was a visionary entrepreneurship of 13 local businessmen who laid the foundation of CBL. Its directors begin their journey with only Taka 3.4 crore worth of capital which is now a respectable Taka 330.77 crore as capital and reserve. The City Bank does not follow the traditional decentralized operation rather the vertical command line that starts from the head office and go through 4 distinct business divisions which are Corporate Banking , Retail Banking , SME Banking and Treasury & Market Risks. CBL currently has 90 online branches and 10 SME centers, 2 Agri and 1 islamic branch across the country. And the number of the branches and centers are growing every year. It has 122 ATMs on its own and ATM sharing management with a partner bank that has more than 550 ATMS across the country. CBL has a plan to end the current year with 200 own ATMs. The City Bank is the first bank in Bangladesh to have issued Dual Currency Credit Card – Master Card and VISA card. The bank is a principal member of VISA international and it issues both Local Currency (Taka) & Foreign Currency (US Dollar) card limits in a single plastic. City Bank has launched American Express Credit Card and American Express Gold Credit card in November 2009. It is the local caretaker of the brand. Both cards are international cards and accepted by the millions of merchants operating on the American Express global merchant network in over 200 countries and territories including Bangladesh. Infrastructure Development (ID) is a sub division of General Administration (GAD) Division of The City Bank Ltd. (CBL) where I worked as an intern for 3 months. It is a part of the back office which supports the front offices of CBL. The main purpose of ID as the name suggests is to develop infrastructures i.e. bank branches, ATM booths , and AMX lounges contributing in the growth of the business of CBL. To build bank branches CBL has to go through many legal and technical steps. Starting from seeking permission from Bangladesh Bank, selecting sites, choosing the best alternative, appointing architecture consultant, approving designs of the consultant, calling tenders, approving cost approval, giving working orders and finally rigorously inspecting till the construction work finishes and ready for opening. This report unveils 16 steps necessary for building a bank branch. It looks into all details that clarifies the procedures require to set up a new branch. Official file work, legal papers, consultant architecture’s BOQ and design layouts, contractor/vendor’s construction image and other illustrations have been integrated into the report to get a complete picture of how CBL approaches to set up a new branch.