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Premier Bank

Hasty withdrawal of BB observers raises question

Staff Correspondent
The Bangladesh Bank (BB) on Tuesday abruptly withdrew its observer from Premier Bank, a day after the latter had rescinded the controversial appointments of its two consultants.
In the last two months the central bank appointed observers for Premier Bank twice, but just to withdraw them both the times, giving rise to questions in the banking sector. Premier Bank in March appointed two persons as consultants with high salaries, despite their lack.of qualifications according to the central bank guidelines for appointing consultants to private banks.
On May 14, the central bank sent a letter to Premier Bank asking it to explain why the consultants' appointment should not be deemed noncompliant to its guidelines, and on
May 17 it appointed one of its general managers as an observer of the private bank. Earlier there had been another BB observer of Premier Bank, but he was also withdrawn on April 19.
After receiving the BB letter, Premier Bank on Monday rescinded the appointments of its two consultants, and within just a day the central bank withdrew its observer in a rather hurried manner, raising questions in the banking community about the propriety of the move.
The central bank also did not take any immediate measure when the two unfit consultants were appointed in March, rather it withdrew the then BB observer from Premier Bank.
In mid-May, the central bank sought explanation from the private bank about the controversial appointments of the consultants, and appointed its own observer, following advise of government high-ups to keep an eye on the bank's activities,
finance ministry sources said.
The sources added that the government high-ups told the central bank that they do not want Premier Bank to turn into another Oriental Bank, which during the last four-party alliance government's regime had been turned into a den of irregularities by some people closely linked to the erstwhile government, including Orion Group.
As a result BB at one stage shut down Oriental Bank's operations, and reopened it as ICB Islami Bank under foreign ownership.
Although Premier Bank rescinded the controversial appointments of the two consultants, a managing director who had been removed from the bank earlier after a central bank investigation had found him guilty of being involved in various irregularities, is back again as its independent director.
Another former managing director of the bank who had retired due to reaching the age bar for managing directors, is also back with a demotion, and working as an assistant managing director, for which their is no age bar.
Different quarters allege that various types of irregularities have been going on in Premier Bank, the chairman of which is former Awami League lawmaker Dr HBM Iqbal, against whom there are numerous allegations of irregularities, many of which were found to be true by a Bangladesh Bank investigation.