State-owned and trouble-ridden BASIC Bank is expected to merge with City Bank — a development that comes less than a week after the government decided in principle to merge four state banks.

The BB in a meeting with top officials of City Bank today directed the private bank to take preparation to acquire a weak bank, a top official of the central bank said.
 In response, City Bank expressed its interest to take over the assets and liabilities of BASIC Bank. 

The meeting presided over by central bank Governor Abdur Rouf Talukder. 

Contacted, City Bank Managing Director & CEO Mashrur Arefin said they discussed the merger plan with the central bank. He, however, did not name any bank.

"Primarily, we will restructure the weak bank for three to four years and then merge it with the City Bank," he said.
City Bank Chairman Aziz Al Kaiser was present at the meeting.

The meeting took place a couple of days after the BB issued a guideline for banks for merger in light of a prompt corrective action framework to identify the problems of any bank so that they may be tackled at an early stage before becoming acute.

The government earlier took the decision in principle to merge four state banks -- Bangladesh Development Bank with Sonali Bank and Rajshahi Krishi Unnayan Bank with Bangladesh Krishi Bank. Top officials of four banks were informed about the decision at a meeting last week.

Last month, Shariah-based Exim Bank agreed to take over the struggling Padma Bank.