Kazi Zahidul Hasan :
After changes in troubled Farmers Bank top management posts, the Bangladesh Bank (BB) is set to dissolve the board of NRB Commercial Bank on account of corruption and mismanagement.
BB earlier served show-cause notices on NRB Commercial (NRBC) Bank Chairman Farasath Ali and its CEO Dewan Mujibur Rahman for their wrongdoings, including signature forgery, interference of outsiders in the board and corruption.
“The central bank could not be dissatisfied with the explanations given by them. So, it is now intending to bring changes in the bank’s top management posts,” a senior BB official told The New Nation yesterday on condition of anonymity.
He said, “A high-powered BB committee has already suggested dissolution of the board and removal of the top executive as per the banking laws”.
Recently, a parliamentary standing committee also recommended BB for dissolving the bank’s board after BB inspection unearthed a total of Tk 701 crore loan scandal in the bank.
“The authorities of the bank disbursed loans in violation of the rules and regulations since 2013. Even a significant portion of the loans was disbursed among the bank’s own directors through fake documents,” said the BB official, adding, “The board of directors of the bank have utterly failed to uphold the banking rules and protect the interest of the depositors… They must face BB’s music for the failure.”
When asked, he said, “The issue has already been forwarded to the Governor for his action. If everything is on the right course, a change in the NBRC bank’s top management will be observed very soon.”
He observed that graft left the private bank in dire stair. Dissolution of the bank’s board is a must to save the bank.
NRBC Bank lunched it operation in late 2013 along with seven other banks. It hogged media headlines for rampant corruption and financial irregularities since the inception.
The chairman of the Farmers Bank Dr Muhiuddin Khan Alamgir resigned from his post on Monday bowing down to pressure from the central bank.
The authorities of the trouble-hit private bank have also brought major chances in its top management posts and overhauled various committees of the bank in line with the central bank directives.
BB came up with the measures as the financial health of the bank continued to deteriorate due to corruption and irregularities by its top management.
It earlier detected Tk 400 crore loan irregularities with the Farmers Bank’s Gulshan, Motijheel and Shyampur branches.
