Citizens Bank receives licence to operate commercially

The Bangladesh Bank on Monday decided to approve the licence to Citizens Bank Limited as a proposed commercial bank.

Earlier, the central bank had issued a letter of intent to Citizens Bank and given it time to fulfil all the necessary conditions. The proposed bank finally met all the conditions after extending the time in two phases, following which the Bangladesh Bank board of directors agreed to issue the licence.

The meeting of the board was held at 2pm on Monday with Governor Fazle Kabir in chair.

Senior Secretary of the Financial Institutions Division Md Ashadul Islam, National Board of Revenue (NBR) Chairman Abu Hena Md Rahmatul Muneem, Senior Secretaries of the Ministry of Finance Abdur Rouf Talukder and Mahbub Ahmed, and remaining board members AKM Aftab ul Islam and Mohammad Nazrul Huda attended the meeting.

Executive Director and Spokesperson for the Bangladesh Bank Serajul Islam said: "The board of directors of has agreed to give licence to the proposed Citizens Bank as it has fulfilled the conditions of the letter of intent."

Sources said that the business plan of Citizens Bank was also presented at the board meeting.

At this time, the Bangladesh Bank gave an observation on the business plan through a committee. After that, the board members decided to approve the bank.

Citizens Bank will have to take other preparations after getting the clearance. The central bank will give final approval only after all preparations for these commercial activities are complete.

Following the approval of the new bank, the number of commercial banks in the country will increase to 61. The current government, which has been in power since 2009, has approved 14 banks in its three consecutive terms.

The latest decision included approving Bengal Commercial Bank, Citizens Bank and People's Bank. Bengal Commercial Bank has already started commercial activities with the final approval, but People's Bank has not yet met the conditions of the letter of intent.

The initial paid-up capital of these newly approved banks is Tk400 crore. Within two years of approval, the paid-up capital has to be raised to Tk500 crore.