Bangladesh Bank dissolves Premier Bank board, appoints new directors
Central bank’s acting spokesperson Mohammad Shahriar Siddiqui confirmed the development to The Business Standard today (19 August).
Bangladesh Bank has dissolved the existing board of directors of Premier Bank and appointed a new six-member board.
The central bank's acting spokesperson, Mohammad Shahriar Siddiqui, confirmed the development today (19 August) and said the decision to restructure the bank's board was taken due to its weaknesses in corporate governance and policy implementation, failure to maintain loan discipline, and an overall lack of good governance.
As part of the move, Dr Arifur Rahman has been appointed to the new board as a director representing the bank's sponsor shareholders.
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In addition, the newly appointed independent directors are former executive director of Bangladesh Bank Md Forkan Hossain; former additional managing director of United Commercial Bank Syed Faridul Islam; former deputy managing director of Bank Asia Md Sazzad Hossain; Professor Sheikh Morshed Jahan of the Institute of Business Administration (IBA), University of Dhaka; and chartered secretary (FCS) M Nurul Alam.
Acting spokesperson Shahriar Siddiqui said the central bank exercised its authority under Section 47 of the Bank Companies Act, 1991, which empowers it to dissolve or restructure any board if its activities are deemed detrimental to the interests of the bank company, its depositors, or the public interest.
"This measure aims to restore transparency, accountability, and discipline in loan management within the banking sector," he told the media.
Before the restructuring, the board was chaired by Mohammad Imran Iqbal.
Jamal G Ahmed served as vice-chairman, while Abdus Salam Murshedy, Shafiqur Rahman, Shaila Shelley Khan, Yeh Cheng Min and Mohammed Ahmed Ali were directors.
Since 15 August, Bangladesh Bank has restructured the boards of 15 banks, including Islami Bank, Social Islami Bank, IFIC Bank, United Commercial Bank, Exim Bank, First Security Islami Bank, Al-Arafah Islami Bank, Global Islami Bank, Union Bank, National Bank, NRB Bank, NRBC Bank, Meghna Bank and Bangladesh Commerce Bank (BCBL).
