NRB Commercial Bank (NRBC) Limited has recalled Tk 100 crore loans that it disbursed to various firms and entities as per the recommendations from the bank’s former board.
“Not all directors… but two to three of them advised to sanction the loans. Later the board passed the loan proposals,” NRBC Chairman Tamal SM Parvez came up with the disclosure at a media briefing on Monday.
The briefing was held at the Bank’s head office in the city.
“We recalled the loans to set an example of good corporate governance and compliance,” he added.
When asked, Parvez said, “The loans were provided through proper procedure and the business firms did not even defaulted. But we asked them to pay back immediately to put the good corporate governance in practice.”
He added they have been asked to pay back the amount within six months.
Referring to a Bangladesh Bank guideline, he said, “No board member could give instruction to a bank management to sanction loan to a particular firm or entity having his or her interest.”
Regarding the loan irregularities of the bank, he said, ” It has created an image crisis of the bank and the new board engaged an all-out effort to restore its image.
He also partially held media reports responsible for the image crisis of the bank.
The Board of Directors of the bank has recently been reshuffled at an emergency board meeting of the bank.
In order to improve the image and accelerate the progress of the bank, Farasath Ali resigned as the chairman and subsequently the board elected Tamal SM Parvez as the new chairman.
Replying to a question, the NRBC chairman said, the negative image caused to diversion of Tk 500 crore deposits from the bank.
“We lost institutional deposit, not public deposit,” he said, adding, “Depositors were rushed for withdrawing their deposits from Farmers Bank after loan scam of the bank surfaced in the media. But this did not happen for our bank. Deposits held by general people still remain intact at our bank.”
Tamal SM Parvez, a Non-resident Bangladeshi (NRB) further said that deposit of their bank continues to grow despite negative media reports.
When asked, he said, “The incumbent board will never interfere on the activities of the bank’s management and remain transparent in sanctioning loans to business firms.”
“We will strictly follow the Bangladesh Bank guidelines in administering the bank and lending practices. Let us work. Hope you will see considerable a progress of our bank after six months,” he said.
Bank’s Managing Director (Current Charge) Kazi Md. Talha also spoke at the press briefing.
