BB approves six new banks

The Bangladesh Bank (BB) has approved six new local entrepreneurs owned commercial banks.

The approvals came from a meeting of Board of directors of BB with Bangladesh Bank Governor Dr Atiur Rahman in the chair Sunday.

The six new banks are Union Bank (HM Ershad), Madhumati Bank (Fazle Noor Tapash MP), Farmers Bank (Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir), Midland Bank (M Moniruzzaman), South-Bangla Agriculture and Meghna Bank.

On April 4, the central bank has already approved three new NRB (Non-Resident Bangladeshis) banks owned by Bangladeshi expatriate entrepreneurs.

The three new NRB banks are NRB Commercial Bank (Iqbal Ahmed, UK) and NRB Bank Limited (Forasat Ali and Nizam Chowdhury, USA).

On September 16 of the last year, BB board meeting took decision in principle to approve new banks and sought applications.

In line with a guideline, also approved by the board, the paid-up capital of the NRB bank will be Tk 400 crore. The NRBs will provide the half of the paid-up capital and the rest will be raised through a public offering.

An entrepreneur can hold a minimum of Tk 10 crore in shares or a maximum of 10 percent of the total shares. No share of the entrepreneur can be transferred in three years without the central bank’s permission.

A non-refundable amount of $15,000 has to be deposited with the application.

Earlier, the Bangladesh Bank received a total of 37 applications for setting up new banks in the private sector.

Those included Federal Bank Limited, Peerless Bank Limited, Modern Islami Bank, Chartered Bank, Global Bank, TMSS Bank, Southern Bank, Western Bank, Universal Bank, Metro Bank Limited, Golf-Bangla Bank Limited and Korea-Bangla Bank Limited.

On September 27, the central bank published a circulation seeking applications from the interested sponsors to set up new commercial banks.

The interested entrepreneurs were asked to apply for new banks by following proper directions of the central bank along with a non-refundable deposit of Tk 10 lakh.

At present, 47 banks--local and foreign--are operating in the country.