Bismillahir Rahmanir Rahim
Esteemed Shareholders
Assalamu Alaikum Wa Rahmatullah,

I take the opportunity to welcome you all to the 8th  Annual General Meeting (AGM) ofUnion Bank Limited on behalf of the Board of Directors, the Bank Management and the Employees of the Bank. As a fourth generation banking brand in Bangladeshsince 2013, it is a great achievement for us to pass another successful year even after the global crisis stirred due to COVID-19 pandemic situation. I am grateful toyou all for allowing me to share with you the highlights of our Bank’s performance along with the Directors’ Report and the Audited Financial Statements for the year ended 31st December 2020.GLOBAL ECONOMY: The coronavirus (COVID-19) as declared a global pandemic has posed a major risk to the global economy in 2020. It causes terrible loss of lives and livelihoods.

Allowing health care steps such as quarantine, isolation, lockdown, social distancing etc. to protect lives have severely limited global economic activity. As a result, the projected growth recovery is not possible to be achieved in 2020, rather it has had acute adverse impacts on all the sectors of the economy and particularly those who work in contact-intensive sectors. This scenario has been  carried out in 2021 but hopefully it will fade over time as vaccine coverage will expand everywhere by the end of 2022.

A way out of this health and economic crisis is increasingly visible. Thanks to the ingenuity of the scientific community, we have already multiple vaccines that can reduce the severity and frequency of infections. In parallel, adaptation to pandemic life has normalized lives as well as the global economy. Additional fiscal support in some economies, (especially the developed and developing economies) will uplift the global economic growth.Strong multilateral cooperation is required to bring the pandemic under control everywhere. Thus first and foremost, countries need to work together to ensure widespread vaccinations across the world.

For this, the efforts like bolstering funding for the COVAX facility to accelerate access to vaccines for all countries, ensuring universal distribution of vaccines, and facilitating access to therapeutics at affordable prices for all require progress towards a more inclusive, flexible and responsive multilateral system for proper implementation. Besides, aggressive and swift monetary policies of the financial sectors have helped prevent worse outcomes. If all are done properly, global economic activity will remain well in the latter half of 2021. According to World Economic Outlook Update, January 2021, the global economy is projected to grow 5.5 percent in 2021 and 4.2 percent in 2022. Consistent with recovery in global activity, global trade volumes are forecast to grow about 8 percent in 2021. Service trade along with other trade sectors is expected to recover slowly. Major central banks should provide clear guidance on future actions to boost up economy. Countries should also cooperate to each other on digitalization and modernization of international trade and decisive policy actions by which they can combat climate change, strengthen social assistance, sustainable finance, sustainable production, and readdress inequality so that the affected people can get benefit.

AN OVERVIEW OF UNION BANK LIMITED
Union Bank Limited is a fourth generation Bank and it is just on its ninth year journey. Despite all the challenges and huge competition, we have been able to retain a steady growth in the year of 2020 like the previous years. At the end of year 2020, total deposit of our Bank stood at BDT 172,710.50 million which is 14.97 percent growth compared to the previous year’s total deposit of BDT 150,219.92 million. On the other hand, total investment recorded BDT 166,337.19 million which is 13.57 percent increase against BDT 146,459.57 million of the previous year. The business of Export and Import has decreased in this year unlike the previous years due to the pandemic situation. Total import of the bank for the year 2020 is BDT 9,203.00 million (Eqvt. USD 110.00 million) and the figure for export stood for BDT 9,176.00 million (Eqvt. USD 109.00 million). Hopefully, the growth of Export-Import business of the Bank will be recovered like previous years as the pandemic is anticipated under control. The Bank has attained an operating profit of BDT 3218.41 million compared to the last year’s operating profit BDT 2,707.90 million. The profit growth has increased 18.85 percent this year.

Considering the upward demands of the customers, Union Bank Limited has been continuously evolving a large banking network throughout the country and providing high quality customer services through the integration of the latest banking technologies,  uch as Internet Banking and UniON apps. For providing better services to the customers, Union Bank Limited has upgraded its interface and functions with the help of the State-of-the-art Banking Software (ABABIL). In the year 2020, Union Bank Limited has accomplished 75 successful corporate agreements with  renowned organizations of the country for building a strong brand image in the competitive marketplace. Besides, we have launched Central Trade Operation Unit (CTOU) which puts fabulous contribution in extended FX trade of the Bank. Being direct Agent of Xpress Money and being Sub-Agent of Sha Global & NEC Money Transfer have speeded up the remittance business of our Bank. At present UBL is providing remittance services, being affiliated with 14 (Forteen) remittance houses.

During this year 2020, we have been able to open 08 (Eight) new branches and 14 (Fourteen) Sub-Branches both in rural and urban areas. At the end of the year, we have total 95 branches and 14 Sub-Branches which are ensuring convenience to the customers at all times to serve Bank’s mission. We are establishing new ATM booths in different parts of the country as well. In order to guide the employees of the Bank, the Code of Conduct is designed. As a business enterprise, UBL is committed to conducting its affairs to the highest standards of ethics, integrity, honesty, fairness and professionalism which will make quality manpower. Union Bank Limited having its own Training Institute is ensuring proper training to its manpower. Corporate Social Responsibility(CSR) is deeply ingrained in the culture of Union Bank Limited. We believe that it is our solemn duty to the less fortunate and underprivileged members of the society to make sustainable social change in their lives.

The Bank is always committed towards the economic and social well being of the downtrodden. Bangladesh Bank has declared guidelines for CSR activities. Surely we are proceeding based on this direction. Thus, from the beginning of our Bank’s journey we have been concentrating on value added CSR activities particularly supporting education, healthcare, reducing poverty and ensuring environment friendly society for the greater benefit of the future generations. During 2020, UBL has spent around BDT 123.48 million on CSR activities. I would now like to extend our sincere thanks and appreciation to all the regulatory authorities, our depositors and investment clients. My deepest gratitude to our fellow Board Members, members of the Shahi’ah Supervisory Committee, all the Bank officials for their continuous and consistent support, encouragement, wisdom input, guidance for development and progress. I am very thankful to Bangladesh Bank, Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission, Register of Joint Stock Companies and Firms, National Board of Revenue and all other relevant entities for their tremendous support, trust and indispensable contributions. I do believe by the grace of Almighty Allah, our sailing through success shall
continue in the coming years In-Sha-Allah and Union Bank Limited will keep its successful journey as a modern technology-based Islamic Bank in Bangladesh.

Ma-­assalam,

Chairman

Ahsanul Alam