Md Mehedi Hasan

Reconstituting the board of directors of ailing banks is the first step towards bringing good governance and discipline to the banking sector, according to Bangladesh Bank Governor Ahsan H Mansur.

The central bank has just reconstituted the board of United Commercial Bank (UCB) for financial wrongdoings, but it has a darker past – a takeover at gunpoint by a politically influential family over a quarter of a century ago.

The Bangladesh Bank yesterday instructed six S Alam-owned banks to stop any money going out of the accounts in the name of the Chattogram-based business giant, its associates’ companies and related persons.

Orion Pharma Ltd, a pharmaceutical company of Orion Group, has been provided a rescheduling facility on a forced/demand loan by state-run Agrani Bank with special approval from the Bangladesh Bank.

The Bangladesh Bank yesterday appointed an administrator to Nagad after one too many allegations of irregularities in the mobile financial service provider’s operations and dealings.

After seven years, S Alam Group’s control over Islami Bank ended yesterday after the Bangladesh Bank decided to dissolve the board of the country’s largest private sector bank that was heavily dominated by individuals linked to the conglomerate.

S Alam Group and its associate companies took out Tk 95,331 crore between 2017 and June this year from six banks, with 79 percent of the sum coming from Islami Bank.

Six banks including four Shariah-based ones are still facing a deficit in their current accounts with the central bank despite special liquidity support.

The Bangladesh Bank instructed state-run Sonali Bank to classify the Tk 106 crore loans taken by Orion Infrastructure Ltd as defaulted since the client repeatedly failed to repay on time.

As much as 90 percent of the loans disbursed by a branch of state-run Janata Bank was for S Alam Group, in yet another instance of how the Chattogram-based business giant exerted its influence on the country’s banking sector.

Chattogram-based conglomerate S Alam Group and garment manufacturer Nassa Group were given interest waivers amounting to Tk 2,544 crore bypassing banking rules, in a testament to the outsize influence oligarchs had on the banking sector during the Awami League-led government of the past 15 years.

Salman F Rahman is known for using his influence to get bank loans for Beximco Group by bending rules, but documents seen by this newspaper have revealed how he helped others secure credit, or at least tried to.

What is the purpose of a single borrower exposure limit? It is to ensure that a bank’s fortune is not tied to the ebb and flow of a conglomerate’s business.

Loans amounting to nearly $600 million, or Tk 7,000 crore, disbursed from the Export Development Fund (EDF), which was formed based on the country’s foreign exchange reserves, have been defaulted, according to a Bangladesh Bank (BB) document.

The Bangladesh Bank reduced the special liquidity support extended to nine lenders, including five Shariah-based banks, despite the absence of a governor.

Abdur Rouf Talukder resigned from the post of governor of the Bangladesh Bank on Friday, four days after Sheikh Hasina stepped down as prime minister and fled the country in the face of a mass uprising.

The Bangladesh Bank has incurred a loss of Tk 55 crore from its foreign exchange deal with Islami Bank centring the introduction of the crawling peg exchange rate system.

Islami Bank Bangladesh today rejected a cheque of a little-known company seeking to withdraw Tk 548 crore

Lending from offshore units of banks in Bangladesh has declined amid the ongoing foreign exchange crisis, leaving the segment in a fragile situation.

There is a lot of talk over a recent hike in interest rates but there is still scope to keep lending rates at a low level, said Md Afzal Karim, managing director of Sonali Bank.