Md Mehedi Hasan

The Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) of Singapore has requested details about the Chattogram-based conglomerate S Alam Group and its owners, including information on their domestic and foreign assets, from Bangladesh’s Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU).

The overseas assets of S Alam Group, including those in Singapore, came under scrutiny following recent media reports.

Former land minister Saifuzzaman Chowdhury Javed compelled UCB board members to resign and former prime minister Sheikh Hasina was aware of this, according to the lender’s new Chairman Sharif Zahir.

National Bank, Islami Bank Bangladesh and Social Islami Bank have applied to the Bangladesh Bank (BB) for its guarantee to avail a total of Tk 6,800 crore in liquidity support through the inter-bank money market for a period of three months.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the World Bank are expected to provide funds to Bangladesh for banking sector reforms, including strengthening and modernising the central bank.

In the first week of July, the Bangladesh Bank and Islami Bank Bangladesh completed a US dollar-taka trade, a typical mutual currency deal, which was supposed to replenish the central bank’s dwindling forex reserves and provide the cash-strapped Shariah-based lender with some liquidity support.

In the first week of July, the Bangladesh Bank and Islami Bank Bangladesh completed a US dollar-taka trade, a typical mutual currency deal, which was supposed to replenish the central bank’s dwindling forex reserves and provide the cash-strapped Shariah-based lender with some liquidity support.<

Default loans in the banking system surpassed Tk 200,000 crore for the first time, underlining the fragile condition of the sector that fell prey to rampant scams and irregularities under the tenure of the Awami League government over the past 16 years.

Default loans in the banking sector hit an all-time high of Tk 211,000 crore at the end of June of this year, as per the latest Bangladesh Bank data. 

Three state-run banks far exceeded their limits to salvage a coal-fired power plant project of an Orion Group subsidiary, which was stalled for six years, with Tk 10,579 crore in loans thanks to policy relaxation by the Bangladesh Bank under the now-ousted Sheikh Hasina government.

The Bangladesh Bank (BB) has instructed the recently restructured banks to identify and assess their loan exposure to politically exposed and important persons as they might fail to repay the loans.

Islami Bank, the largest private bank by deposits in 2017, was a lucrative target for Sheikh Hasina’s cronies when an influential business group with her blessing occupied it by force – a “perfect robbery” in Bangladesh’s banking history.

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.