Public Administration Division has requested Bank and Financial Institutions Division to start process to establish Samriddhi Sopan Bank for the government employees.
In a letter recently, the Public Administration Division has also urged Bangladesh Bank and Bank Division to report progress in works fortnightly.
Meanwhile, Bank Division gave its consent to a Bangladesh Bank proposal of setting up a bank for Border Guard Bangladesh – Simanto Bank – like Trust Bank operated by Bangladesh Army.
As per the proposal, the Simanto Bank will start its operation with Tk400 crore, of which, an amount of Tk100 crore will come from BGB Welfare Fund and the rest of the money will be borrowed from the state-owned commercial banks.
As per the Samriddhi Sopan Bank proposal, the bank’s initial paid-up capital will also be Tk400 crore.
An amount of Tk140 crore, which has been lying idle in the Employees Welfare Board, will be used as seed money for the proposed bank of public servants.
A total of 2.1m current and 0.5m retired public officials will be shareholders of the bank. The number of shares will be 4,000, the worth of which is Tk10 per share.
Earlier, National Pay and Services Commission (NPSC) recommended setting up of a bank for public servants.
NPSC Chairman Farashuddin Ahmed said the government welfare fund has a piece of land at Dainik Bangla intersection in the capital and selling 20-25 kathas of it could fetch Tk400 crore, enough for the capital of the new bank.
He added the bank would provide development and commercial loans possibly on single-digit interest rates.
The government is set to form two institutions -- a bank and a separate entity -- for running the pension fund for public servants, after the cabinet gave it the green light.
At present, there is no specific authority for doing the pension-related works of about 520,000 pensioners. In this backdrop, the Pay Commission recommended setting up a bank that would have all the serving and retired government employees as shareholders.
The bank will function as both a commercial and development bank.