With the ouster of the Awami League-led government on August 5, news of rampant corruption and irregularities have been coming to light, with United Commercial Bank (UCB), a private bank, being the latest after the likes of Islami Bank, First Security Islami Bank, National Bank, and others.
UCB officials had made several demands in a letter they sent to the erstwhile governor and chairman of Bangladesh Bank and Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC), where they said the bank had become fragile due to arbitrariness, irregularities, corruption, money laundering, money laundering and abuse of power by UCB's current board members, all part of one family.
They also said that UCB was weak in the five indicators of bank governance, cost of deposits, credit quality, income-expense ratio, and capital adequacy, which required immediate arbitration, but never arrived.
It is said that this bank needs to be taken out of the family circle and established in the corporate world.
At one point, Saifuzzaman Chowdhury, husband of the bank's chairman Rukhmila Zaman and former land minister in the Awami League government, removed several independent directors.
The officials demanded a reorganisation of the board of directors and breaking up the family system.
The letter also mentions that in 2023, defaulted loans in the country's banking sector increased by Tk25,000 crore, or 9% to Tk145,000 crore.
However, as of March this year, defaulted loans increased to Tk182,000 crore.
According to a report by Bangladesh Bank, UCB's defaulted loan is Tk2,721 crore, while Tk2,471 crore was stuck in the money loan court.
The UCB officials also demanded a special audit to find out how much of UCB's rescheduled bad loans were being swept under the carpet.
It is claimed that the bank's chairman, Rukhmila Zaman, has siphoned off money from UCB. As a result of this money laundering, 67.24% of the market value of this bank listed in the capital market has disappeared.
Family-led looting
The letter mentioned that the family of Saifuzzaman Chowdhury Javed owns 260 properties in the UK which have been paid £135 million, about Tk2 crore.
It noted that the family built wealth abroad by looting bank depositors' money.
It was also claimed that the bank’s chairman Rukhmila Zaman has six companies abroad. A huge amount of money has been transferred in this sector. The companies are ZTZ Property Ventures Limited, Aramit Properties Limited, Rukhmila Properties Limited, Sadakat Properties Limited, Jeba Properties Limited and Zaria Properties Limited. She is the director of all these companies.
Among them, she has stepped down from the directorship of Rukmila Properties Limited. The address of this company is Warwick Lane, London.
All other companies are listed as having addresses in Devonshire Square, London.
In 2017, Rukmila Zaman took over as the chairman of the bank. She succeeded her husband Saifuzzaman Chowdhury.
It is known that Saifuzzaman Chowdhury, despite being a state minister and minister, misused his powers and decided to conduct the meeting by sitting on the chairman's chair of the board meeting of the bank in an illegal manner.
He was chairman of the bank without jurisdiction and ignored the instructions of Bangladesh Bank and interfered in the day-to-day work of the bank unfairly and illegally.
He also declared his brother Anisuzzaman Chowdhury Rony as the chairman of the executive committee.
He is also accused of misusing state power to forcibly remove many sponsor directors.
Even after the election of directors at a recent AGM, their directorships were canceled without regard to the rules.
