Sikder family loses grip on National Bank
The Sikder family has apparently lost its grip on the National Bank Ltd as a new board takes over the country's first private bank.
Only four and a half months after restructuring the NBL board, Bangladesh Bank on Sunday dissolved the board again with Parveen Haque Sikder losing the post of director.
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Earlier, Parveen's mother Monowara Sikder, brothers Rick Haque Sikder and Ron Haque Sikder had been removed from the board by the central bank in December last year.
The banking regulator kept three of NBL's previous directors in the new board and made sponsor director Khalilur Rahman the new chairman.
The restructuring came after the now-defunct board split over the bank's merger with United Commercial Bank (UCB). Three independent directors, including the NBL chairman, resigned over the issue.
Parveen had issued a note of dissent over the merger proposal, said a former board member of the bank, seeking anonymity.
Among the four new nominated directors, Md Reazul Karim FCMA, former managing director of Premier Bank, was nominated by Chattogram-based KY Steel. Ahsanul Karim, a senior lawyer of the Supreme Court, was chosen by Chattogram's Sundarban Consortium Ltd; AKM Tofazzal Haque, a professor of Chittagong University, by Chattogram's East Coast Holdings Ltd, and Ershad Mahmud, brother of Foreign Minister Hasan Mahmud, was picked by Stiches and Weave Ltd, based in Chattogram.
The BB appointed three independent directors -- Prof Md Helal Uddin Nizami of Chittagong University; chartered accountant Ratna Dutta; and Bangladesh Bank former executive director ABM Zahurul Huda.
Ratna Dutta's husband, Subrata Kumar Bhowmik, is the executive director of a large group based in Chattogram.
BB kept in the board sponsor director Moazzam Hossain, founder of Hosaf Group of Companies, which is based in Dhaka.
It also kept Md Shafiqur Rahman, who was nominated by Sikder Insurance Company. He is the only director in the new board with links to the Sikder Group.
The new board of directors called a press conference yesterday at the NBL head office. All NBL board members were present.
Chairman Khalilur, also the chairman of Chattogram-based KDS group, told journalists that Tk 1,000 crore would be injected into the bank through the shareholders, and the bank would collect Tk 3,000 crore more by launching a campaign urging people to deposit money.
He claimed that the two steps would end the bank's liquidity crisis.
Replying to a question about the merger with UCB, Khalilur said the board decided not to merge with any bank and also informed the central bank that it would improve its financial health within a short time.
Central bank officials, during a meeting with the UCB chairman on April 9, had decided to merge the UCB and the NBL.
In reply to a question, the new chairman said the bank has not been taken over by any business group, and that they were appointed by the central bank.
Citing an appointment with the BB governor, Khalilur left the head office in a hurry without answering many of the journalists' questions.
Ahsan H Mansur, executive director at the Policy Research Institute Bangladesh, said a new board of directors should not include anyone from the previous board.
The people in the new board should have the money to meet the capital deficit, he added.
At yesterday's press conference, bank officials gave journalists boxes of snacks. A few journalists found envelopes with Tk 5,000 inside each box.
A group of journalists refused to take the boxes and left the NBL office.
One of them told The Daily Star that it was extremely very embarrassing that a bank offered journalists money.
Contacted, NBL Managing Director Md Touhidul Alam Khan refused to comment.
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