5-member committee formed to train state-owned bank directors
BI Report || BusinessInsider
Photo: Collected
The Finance Division has decided to sit for its first meeting on Tuesday to discuss how to train the directors of public banks, non-bank financial institutions, and insurers about ensuring good governance.
Comprising of five members, the committee aims to make better boards that can avoid financial mishaps in state-owned financial institutions.
The formation of the committee was announced in an official gazetted notification on the website of the Financial Institutions Division (FID) on Sunday.
An official of the FID told Business Insider that the committee will sit on Tuesday to prepare a module for possible training of the state-owned bank directors.
The training session will be held from next week through a webinar due to the coronavirus pandemic, the official added.
FID Additional Secretary ABM Ruhul Azad is heading the committee.
Although the FID had previously provided training to state-owned bank directors in 2018, default loans have not declined in the last two and a half years.
As of September this year, NPLs in the Bangladeshi banking sector stood at Tk94,440 crore, accounting for 8.88% of total outstanding loans. Of these, Janata Bank made up Tk13,921 crore or nearly 15% of the total NPLs.
Sonali — the largest state-owned bank in terms of branches and deposits — has been burdened with over Tk10,197 crore NPLs during the period.
Scam-hit BASIC Bank, which was almost destroyed between 2010 and 2014 by the then Chairman Sheikh Abdul Hye Bachchu, is now struggling for its survival and still bears the burden of his malpractice.
BASIC Bank’s NPLs totalled Tk7,607 crore. In terms of provision shortfall, BASIC topped the list with over Tk3,233 crore caused by its high level of NPLs.
Agrani Bank has the third-highest NPLs amounting to Tk6,393 crore, followed by Rupali Bank with Tk4,102 crore.
Currently, there are 20 state-owned banks, financial institutions and insurance companies.
The total number of directors in the public financial entities is 140.
