The family members of former Awami League MP HBM Iqbal finally lost their grip on Premier Bank as the central bank dissolved the board of directors of the private lender and formed a new board.
The Bangladesh Bank cited deficiencies in corporate governance, failure to maintain loan discipline, and a general lack of good governance as reasons for reconstituting the board.
The Bank Company Act 1991, empowers Bangladesh Bank to dissolve or reconstitute a board if its activities are found to be against the interests of the bank or its depositors, or against the public interest.
In February this year, Iqbal resigned as chairman of Premier Bank. His son, the vice-chairman, also followed suit.
Along with the chairman and vice chairman, they also left the directorship. However, his other son Mohammad Imran Iqbal was the chairman of the bank. HBM Iqbal had been serving as the chairman since the bank was established in 1999.
Since then, Iqbal's other son, Mohammad Imran Iqbal, had been serving as chairman.
In April this year, the Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit fined Premier Bank for allowing HBM Iqbal to illegally withdraw Tk 1.11 crore and $30,000 from frozen accounts.
The newly formed board includes one independent director – Arifur Rahman, appointed as a director representing the sponsor shareholders – as well as four independent directors.
They are Md Forkan Hossain, former executive director of Bangladesh Bank, Syed Faridul Islam, former additional managing director of United Commercial Bank, Md Sazzad Hossain, former deputy managing director of Bank Asia, Sheikh Morshed Jahan, a professor at the Institute of Business Administration (IBA) at Dhaka University, M Nurul Alam, a chartered secretary.
Since August 15 last year, the central bank has now reconstituted the boards of 15 banks.
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