The central bank, in a belated move, yesterday removed BASIC Bank managing director (MD) Kazi Faqurul Islam on charges of negligence to duties and committing irregularities in loan portfolio management, official sources said. At the same time, Bangladesh Bank (BB) also put an embargo on his service to any other commercial bank for the next two years.
Confirming the matter, a senior BB official told The New Nation yesterday that the central bank took the action against him in exercise of the new banking companies act.
An order in this regard was issued yesterday afternoon signed by the BB governor Dr Atiur Rahman.
The episode of financial irregularities of Basic Bank, a state-owned specialized bank, hogged media headlines for the last two and a half years and banking sector’s insiders blamed the top management of the bank for the loan scams.
Following media reports, the central bank launched investigation into the matter and later the inspection team of BB found Tk 3,500 crore loan scam at the different branches of the bank.
The loan was sanctioned breaching the banking norms against various fake business entities. The BB investigation also held responsible the bank’s top management including the managing director of the bank for the large-scale loan scams, according to the investigation report.
Earlier, BB issued a show-cause letter to the MD asking him to give explanation and why the central bank would not remove him from his current post due to involvement with the graft.
In replying to the notice, Faqurul failed to satisfy the BB resulting that the central bank further issued notice to give explanation, a BB official said.
Recently, he summoned to give his explanation before the central bank’s permanent committee, which was formed to tackle the corruption in the banking sector, led by central bank deputy governor Nazneen Sultana.
“As he failed to prove him innocent before the central bank’s permanent committee, it decided to remove Faqurul from the post of BASIC Bank’s managing director,” he added.
