ISMD Circular No. 01: Master Circular Regarding Submission of Data to Integrated Supervision System (ISS)

Integrated Supervision Management Department Bangladesh Bank Head Office Dhaka.

ISMD Circular No.-1
Date: 23 Bhadro 1427 Bangabda
07 September 2020 AD

To,
The Chief Executive Officer
All Scheduled Banks operating in Bangladesh.

Dear Sir,

Master Circular regarding submission of data to Integrated Supervision System (ISS).

In order to strengthen and make more effective the supervision activities in the banking sector, the Integrated Supervision Management Department (ISMD) has issued instructions from time to time to scheduled banks to submit data to the Integrated Supervision System (ISS) in the format prescribed by it. For this purpose, letters/circulars were issued as follows: Letter No: DBI-2(MIS & RBI Gen)/22/2013-367, dated: 04/08/2013; DBI-2 Circular No.-1, dated: 24/02/2014; Letter No: DBI-2(MIS & RBI Cell)/22/2014-553, dated: 20/05/2014; ISMC Circular Letter No.-1, dated: 25/02/2015; Letter No: ISM Cell/02/2015-93, dated: 08/03/2015; Letter No: ISM Cell/07/2015-15, dated: 06/04/2015; Letter No: ISM Cell/02/2015-187, dated: 28/05/2015; Letter No: ISM Cell/02/2015-200, dated: 02/06/2015; Letter No: ISM Cell/02/2015-384, dated: 07/07/2015; Letter No: ISM Cell/02/2015-392, dated: 12/07/2015; Letter No: ISM Cell/07/2015-407, dated: 30/07/2015; Letter No: ISM Cell/02/2015-750, dated: 06/10/2015; Letter No: ISM Cell/02/2015-950, dated: 02/11/2015; ISMC Circular Letter No.-1, dated: 20/01/2016; Letter No: ISM Cell/02/2016-297, dated: 08/06/2016; Letter No: ISM Cell/02/2016-564, dated: 25/09/2016; Letter No: ISMD/02/2017-173, dated: 16/02/2017; Letter No: ISMD/02/2017-350, dated: 10/04/2017; Letter No: ISMD/07/2017-1144, dated: 19/10/2017; Letter No: ISMD/02/2019-460, dated: 15/05/2019. Now, in order to make the supervision activities of Bangladesh Bank through the Integrated Supervision System more dynamic, orderly and integrated, a Master Circular containing the following instructions is being issued after reviewing and integrating the previously issued circulars/circular letters/letters.

1. Regarding ISS Information Provision:

1.1 The Head Office and branches of scheduled banks must upload the forms containing information carefully according to Annexure 1 & 2 on a monthly basis to the Bangladesh Bank website (https://www.bb.org.bd) and inform this department by the 25th of the following month (if the 25th falls on a weekly or government holiday, then on the preceding working day).

1.2 In the case of new branches, information must be submitted regularly to register the branch on the Bangladesh Bank website within 30 days of obtaining the SBB Code for ISS information submission.

1.3 The forms prescribed (Annexure 1 & 2) for providing information to ISS can be found at the link mentioned above. The instructions given in these forms must be followed while filling in the information.

1.4 Branches of the bank will send information to the ISS Desk of their Head Office every month according to Annexure 2. The ISS Desk will verify and select the information received from the branches, ensure its correctness, provide necessary instructions to the branches, and based on those instructions, the branches must upload the corrected Annexure 2 (where applicable) to the Bangladesh Bank website within the time limit mentioned in paragraph 1.1.

1.5 Backup copies of ISS forms prepared in Excel and CSV formats must be properly preserved at the 'ISS Desk' established at the Head Office of each bank and at the respective branches. The Bangladesh Bank inspection team will examine them during inspections.

1.6 The information provided in the forms uploaded by the bank on the Bangladesh Bank website shall be considered final, and information sent through any other medium besides the portal will not be accepted.

1.7 If it is anticipated that information/statements cannot be submitted within the prescribed time due to unavoidable reasons, this department must be informed in writing by the 20th of the reporting month. However, if such requests for extension of time for submitting information/statements become habitual, they will not be considered.

1.8 To ensure the accuracy of information submitted to ISS (branch and head office), the certificate of the relevant month according to the sample given in Annexure-1 must be submitted to this department by the 30th of the following month.

2. Regarding Loan Classification Statements and Audited Annual Reports:

2.1 Branches of the bank will prepare CL statements (Form-1 to 5) on a quarterly basis in Excel format and send soft copies to their Head Office. The Head Office must submit soft copies of all quarterly CL statements received from branches to this department via CD/DVD by the 25th of the following month.

2.2 One copy of the bank's Audited Annual Financial Report must be sent to this department within 15 (fifteen) days of its publication. If any discrepancy is observed between the information submitted to ISS (December-based, June-based for RAKB and BKRB) and the information presented in the Audited Annual Financial Report, a reconciliation report (Reconciliation Statement) and soft copy (Excel and CSV) of Annexure 1 prepared based on the Audited Annual Financial Report must be submitted to this department within 15 (fifteen) days of the report's publication.

3. Regarding ISS Desk and Communication:

3.1 In order to properly carry out information management and communication activities related to ISS, a competent officer of at least the fourth grade below the Chief Executive Officer must be appointed as the head of the 'ISS Desk' established at the Head Office of each bank. Furthermore, if any officer appointed at the 'ISS Desk' is transferred or changed for any other reason, the name, designation, email address, mobile and telephone number of the new officer must be informed to this department within 15 (fifteen) days of the change.

3.2 Communication regarding ISS will continue through the personal neutral permanent email addresses created earlier for the Chief Executives of scheduled banks.

3.3 The Custodian of the User ID and Password of the website for ISS reporting by the bank will be the Chief Executive/CFO/Head of ISS Desk/Head of ICC/Head of MIS for the Head Office, and the concerned Branch Manager/Branch Head for branches. The responsibility for the correctness/accuracy of the information provided to ISS lies with the custodians.

4. Regarding Penalty:

4.1 If there is delay in submitting information/statements within the prescribed time and/or if incorrect/incomplete information is provided in the submitted information/statements, penal action/punitive measures will be taken against the bank under the provisions of Section 109 of the Companies Act, 1991 (amended up to 2018).

5. Others:

5.1 The Head Office and branches of scheduled banks must ensure the correct use of Internal Audit and Internal Control systems in each bank to verify the accuracy of information provided to ISS.

5.2 Banks must continue in-house training activities for officers of the Head Office and branches of scheduled banks according to the Training and Capacity Building Plan for ISS Reporting attached with this circular, and hard copies (according to Annexure-3) and soft copies via email (m.ismd@bb.org.bd) of information regarding training must be submitted to this department by January 20th of the following year.

This circular is issued under the power conferred by Section 36 of the Companies Act, 1991, and will come into force immediately. All instructions of previously issued circulars/circular letters/letters regarding this matter shall be deemed repealed.

Annexures:

1. Sample Certificate;
2. Training and Capacity Building Plan for ISS Reporting; and
3. Format for Training Information.

Yours faithfully,

(Nur Mohammad Sheikh)
Deputy General Manager (In-charge)
Phone: 9530735

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Annexure-1

Ref: Upo:B: Uu/Gg/Nnnn
Subject: Issuance of Certificate of Accuracy of Information Submitted to Integrated Supervision System (ISS)

To,
The Chief Executive Officer
[Name of the Bank]
[Address]

Sir,

This is to certify that the information submitted to the Integrated Supervision System (ISS) of Bangladesh Bank for the month of ......................, 20........ has been verified by the Internal Audit and Internal Control system of your bank and found to be accurate.

Sincerely,

(Chief Executive Officer)

(Certificate Verification Officer)
(Designation)

(Head of Internal Audit/Internal Control)
(Designation)

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Annexure-2

Training and Capacity Building Plan for ISS Reporting

1. Name of Training: 'Training/Capacity Building for ISS Reporting'

2. Objectives of Training:
2.1 To provide clear understanding to desk-level officers regarding the instructions of ISMD Circular No.-1/2020 dated 07/09/2020 and ISS forms;
2.2 To enhance the capability of officers to prepare ISS forms correctly and upload them properly to the Bangladesh Bank website;
2.3 To inform all relevant officers about the importance of timely and accurate information provision to the Integrated Supervision System (ISS) in accordance with ISMD Circular No.-1/2020;
2.4 To provide understanding to Head Office and branch-level officers about best practices regarding multi-dimensional data collection and compilation of ISS forms;
2.5 To raise awareness among Head Office and branch-level officers regarding their responsibilities and duties in providing information to ISS through ISS forms.

3. Focus Group:
'A' Group
(Policy-making and decision-making officers) Senior management of the bank (Executive Director, Divisional/Departmental Head/Deputy Head, Branch Manager)

'B' Group
(Implementation officers)
Desk-level officers engaged in Credit/Investment, Accounts, Foreign Exchange, MIS, Recovery and Cash Management functions at the Head Office and branches.

4. Duration of Training: 1 (one) working day for each training workshop.

5. Number of Trainees per Workshop: Minimum 30 (thirty) persons.

6. Scope of Training: Credit/Investment, Accounts, Foreign Exchange, MIS, Recovery and Cash Management Departments/Divisions of the Head Office and all branches of the bank.

7. Training Methodology: Hands-on training and practice-based feedback analysis. In this regard, each workshop should be divided into 2 (two) parts. In the 1st part, officers should be given transparent understanding of the instructions of ISMD Circular No.-1/2020 and ISS forms through presentations/participatory discussions, and in the 2nd part, practice-based training programs should be conducted to determine the practical capability of the concepts provided.

8. Retraining: Officers who do not perform satisfactorily based on feedback from practical exercises after training must be included in retraining. In this regard, they may be included in the next workshop of the ongoing training program or special training workshops may be organized separately for them.

9. Training Cost: It is essential to include multiple officers from the Head Office to branches in the training to successfully complete the ISS-related training program. In this context, it is noted that many banks are currently operating branches in different regions of the country. If banks want to involve officers of branches located in different districts of Bangladesh in centrally organized (i.e., Dhaka-centric) ISS reporting training programs, they will have to incur huge training costs. In this regard, banks may adopt a strategy to expand the training program regionally/district-wise rather than only Dhaka-centric, considering the density of branches in their areas and the number of trainees per workshop, and can operate off-center based training programs. Adopting such a strategy will allow more officers to participate in the mentioned training programs, which will play a helpful role in increasing the effectiveness of training. On the other hand, since TA/DA expenses for trainees can be reduced, it will be possible to conduct more cost-effective training programs.

10. Training Plan: Since ISS-related training is a comprehension-practice based training program, banks must formulate a realistic training plan before starting the training program. The training program must be conducted according to the training plan. The training plan must mention the training schedule, total number of workshops, regional division of the training program, selection of trainees, evaluation process of trainees, provision of necessary infrastructure for training, list of officers responsible for organizing training, etc.

11. Selection of Trainers: Correct selection of trainers plays an important role in the success of the training program, so officers who have good knowledge of ISS must be selected as trainers. In this regard, competence in teaching should be given more importance than rank. Assistance from Bangladesh Bank may be sought if necessary.

12. Preservation of Training Information: It is necessary to preserve all information about the training program conducted for the purpose of effectively utilizing trained officers through ISS-related in-house training and for future training plan formulation. As training-related information, the training plan, names/designations/offices/branches/departments/divisions of trained officers, email addresses, phone/mobile numbers, list of bank branches covered by the training workshop, all correspondence regarding training communication, and all information regarding trainee evaluations must be preserved at the ISS Desk/Training Institute.

13. Reporting Training Information to Bangladesh Bank: A report on ISS-related in-house training must be submitted to Bangladesh Bank in accordance with the instructions given in ISMD Circular No.-1/2020.

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Annexure-3

Format for Training/Capacity Building for ISS Reporting

Bank Name:

Sl. No.	Description	Total Number
1	Total Training/Capacity Building Programs Conducted (Form No. 1)
2	Total Number of Participants in Training Programs (Form No. 1)
3	Total Number of Female Participants in Training Programs (Form No. 1)
4	Total Number of Male Participants in Training Programs (Form No. 1)
5	Total Number of Participants (2+3+4)
6	Total Number of Participants (Total Form No. 1)
7	Total Number of Participants per Training Program (Form No. 1)
8	Total Number of Participants (Total Form No. 1)

Signature of Chief Executive Officer

Signature of Head of ISS Desk/Training Coordinator