Bangladesh Bank Committee formed to implement a plan to merge 5 banks. The committee was formed on Monday by order of the Financial Institutions Division of the Ministry of Finance.
A meeting was held at the secretariat on Sunday under the chairmanship of Financial Advisor Salehuddin Ahmed. The working committee was formed as per the decision of the meeting, sources said. The possible name of the merged bank could be ‘United Islami Bank’.
The committee’s mandate is to prepare an action plan to implement the merger of the banks. The banks are First Security Islami Bank, Global Islami Bank, Union Bank, Exim Bank and Social Islami Bank.
The committee was formed with Bangladesh Bank Deputy Governor Md. Kabir Ahmed as the convener. The other members of the committee are Mohammad Rashedul Amin, Joint Secretary of the Finance Division of the Ministry of Finance, and Farid Ahmed, Deputy Secretary, Sheikh Farid and Mohammad Saidul Islam, two joint secretaries of the Financial Institutions Department, Mohammad Zahir Hossain, director of the Bank Resolution Department of Bangladesh Bank, and Kazi Arif Uz Zaman and Mohammad Nazim Uddin, two additional directors of the same department.
The office order states that members of the working committee will receive honorarium for attending the meeting as per the rules.
Bangladesh Bank has taken the initiative to merge five Islamic banks that were in trouble due to irregularities and corruption during the tenure of the ousted Awami League. These will be merged to form an Islamic bank. The bank’s capital will be Tk 35,200 crore. It is learnt that the government will initially provide Tk 20,200 crore capital for the merged new bank. The remaining amount will be borrowed.
Except for Exim, four of the five banks were owned by S. Alam, a person known and criticized as close to the Awami League government. And Exim Bank Chairman Nazrul Islam Majumder was also close to ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
Bangladesh Bank held a hearing last week on five banks that were set to merge. Of these, three banks agreed to merge without any objections. These are First Security Islami Bank, Union Bank and Global Islami Bank, Exim Bank and Social Islami Bank have asked for more time.
First Security Islami Bank Chairman Mohammad Abdul Mannan told Prothom Alo, “I have been saying since day one that there is no alternative but to merge. It is very possible to create a response across the country through the proposed bank.”
