The Bangladesh Bank has fined state-owned Agrani Bank and Rupali Bank for loan anomalies.
Agrani Bank has been fined Tk5 lakh for providing undue privileges to an affiliated firm of a loan defaulter company. On the other hand, Rupali Bank has been fined Tk1 lakh for hiding information about a loan defaulter.
According to documents, Swiss Quality Paper — a subsidiary of Tanaka Group — issued a debenture of Tk14 crore in January last year and another worth Tk13 crore in December with Agrani Bank.
But the group had default loans worth Tk103 crore with the bank at the time.
In addition, the bank has not approached the central bank's Credit Information Bureau (CIB) for a year about the renewed loan facility given to Swiss Quality Paper.
Apart from this, information on loan worth Tk269 crore taken by another subsidiary of Tanaka Group, Marhaba Spinning Mills Limited, was also not informed to the CIB.
Meanwhile, Rupali Bank has been fined for concealing the information about Dolly Construction defaulting on a loan.
An official of Bangladesh Bank told Dhaka Tribune that both banks had applied to the board of directors of the central bank for waiving the two fines.
“But the board did not consider the applications. As a result, the central bank has deducted fines from the accounts of the two banks. Due to the fines, the CAMELS rating of the two banks will be negatively affected,” the official also added.
Agrani Bank Managing Director and CEO Mohammad Shams-Ul Islam and Rupali Bank MD and CEO Md Obayed Ullah Al Masud could not be reached for comments on the fines.
According to Bangladesh Bank, the number of loss-making branches has been on the rise for state-run banks like Sonali Bank, Agrani Bank, Janata Bank and Rupali Bank.
Rajshahi Krishi Unnayan Bank is facing the worst situation, with 246 branches out of 383 counting losses.
The number of loss-making branches of Agrani Bank stood at 78 as of FY20, while that of Rupali Bank stood at 16.
