A renowned banker will be appointed as the new chairman of BASIC Bank, Finance Minister AMA Muhith has said.
The minister told this to the Dhaka Tribune without naming the new chairman.
Muhith said the new BASIC Bank board of directors would be announced on Sunday.
Sheikh Abdul Hye Bachchu had entered into the deep sea fishing business in 2011 when he was made chairman of Basic Bank and he spent around Tk150 crore on 11 deep-sea fishing trawlers in less than two years.
Bangladesh Bank investigations detected massive financial irregularities involving around Tk4,500 crore of loans in the bank’s three branches between 2009 and 2013.
The Gulshan branch alone lent more than Tk3,111 crore last year against its deposit of Tk695 crore only.
The loan-deposit ratio reached to a whooping 427%, meaning it has lent Tk427 against a deposit of Tk100.
Troubled BASIC Bank has doubled its branches to 68 in the last five years, however 70% of its business activities are controlled by graft-ridden four branches. Of the four branches, loan activities have recently been suspended in three – Dilkusha, Gulshan and Shantinagar – by the central bank on charges of loan frauds. The fourth one is the bank’s main branch.
The bank had only 32 branches in September 2009 when the incumbent board of directors was appointed by the government.
The central bank two month ago fired BASIC Bank Managing Director Kazi Faqurul Islam for presiding over a period of serious irregularities at the state-run bank.