& çâÌæÚUæð´ ·¤è ¥ôÚU Îð¹Ùæ ÁæÚUè ÚU¹ð´ ¥ÍæüÌ ¥ÂÙð ÜÿØ ÂÚU ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´Ð ãæÚU Ù ×æÙð´, €UØô´ç·¤ ·¤æ× ·¤ÚUÙð âð ¥æÂ·¤ô ©gðàØ ·¤è Âýæç# ãôÌè ãñ ¥õÚU ÁèßÙ ·¤æ ¹æÜèÂÙ ÎêÚU ãôÌæ ãñÐ ÖÜð ãè ÁèßÙ ×ð´ ç·¤ÌÙè Öè ·¤çÆÙæ§ü €UØô´ Ù ¥æ°, çÁ™ææâæ ¥õÚU ©ˆâæã ÕÙæ° ÚU¹ð´Ð ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´, ÜÿØ ã×ðàææ ¥æÂ·Ô¤ Âæâ ãôÌð ãñ´ çÁ‹ãð´ ÂæÙð ·Ô¤ çÜ° ÂýØæâ ¥æÂ ·¤Öè Öè àæéM¤ ·¤ÚU â·¤Ìð ãñ´Ð

DEBATE

Will depositor directorship in banks click?

Sajjadur Rahman
Choosing directors from depositors' side for banks has recently become a talk of the banking circle.
Bankers see the Bangladesh Bank's (BB) move a fruitless' one, while experts term it 'a wise decision' and believe it would safeguard depositors' interests.
The BB in a circular Wednesday asked the banks to immediately appoint two directors from depositors. However, no timeframe has been set for such appointment.
"It is not a good idea. Depositors and bankers' interests are different. Banks have to pay benefits to their depositors irrespective of profit or loss, but a director has to bear the loss," said Muhammad A Rumee Ali, chairman of BRAC Bank Limited.
"Our concern is that this system does not exist anywhere in the world," Ali, also the vice chairman of Bangladesh Association of Bankers (BAB), a platform of bank owners, told The Daily Star.
Tofazzel Hossain, chairman of NCC Bank Limited, also opposed the idea of appointing directors from depositors saying that depositors have neither any risk nor responsibility in a bank's business.
Some others are of different views. Professor Osman Imam of the Finance Department at Dhaka University pointed to the fact that
depositors hold a major stake in a bank's capital and they also suffer the most on any bank's collapse.
“The central bank move may greatly benefit depositors," he said with conviction.
“I believe corporate governance of a bank will also be improved after
choosing directors from depositors," Osman added.
Meanwhile, banking sources said a section of depositors has already started maintaining connections with different private commercial banks for becoming directors under the BB's latest directive.
Some of the depositors are learnt to have offered savings of crores of taka in their accounts, sources said.
"BB has received more than 100 applications from the depositors who are aspirant for the directorship,” a BB senior official confirmed.
BRAC Bank Chairman Rumee Ali
also admitted that they are getting such letters from different depositors.
"Now banks may start selling directorship? ” questioned Ali.
Depositors and directors are completely different categories of stakeholders, he said. It is very likely that depositor directors will leave no stone unturned to protect even their petty interests, Ali warned, adding that they may influence any recruitment process of a bank.
BB has to make sure that there would not be any hassle after appointing those directors. "Both the private commercial banks (PCBs) and BB have to keep alert to avert any untoward incident in future," he suggested.
Tofazzel Hossain echoed Ali's view.
Most of the banks are going slow to appoint those directors because of absence of any time limit in the BB circular, sources in the PCBs said.
But some banks have already decided to go by the BB order as soon as possible.
"We will shortly produce a list of depositor directors before our board," Hossain toldThe Daily Star.
On May 29 2008, the central bank issued a public announcement seeking opinions from the public to finalise rules for appointment of two directors from depositors.
Now the BB has agreed to approve two names to be sent by banks.
sajjad@thedailystar.net