Social Islami Bank hides info of Tk 7853 cr default loan

Staff Correspondent: Bangladesh Bank gave an opportunity to finalize the 2023 annual report of Social Islami Bank under the control of S Alam Group by hiding the real information. The bank’s actual defaulted debt is Tk 9,569 crore, but it is shown as Tk 1,716 crore only. This means, the default information of Tk 7,853 crore has been concealed.
Apart from this, a security reserve of Tk 9,281 crore is supposed to be kept, but Tk 1,153 crore has been kept. A provision of Tk 8,128 crore has been hidden in this case. Thus concealing the facts, the bank paid a 10 percent dividend for 2023, of which 5 percent was in cash and 5 percent in stock.
Bangladesh Bank’s recently resigned Governor Abdur Rauf Talukder and Deputy Governor Khurshid Alam, who are under fire from officials for corruption, are said to have given this opportunity. However, Khurshid Alam denied receiving any financial benefits.
The relevant officials of the central bank said that before finalizing the annual financial report of each bank, the information of default loans and provisions of major branches including the head office is verified. Before finalizing the 2023 report of SIBL, the central bank delegation prepared the report in the light of the onsite report of 5 branches and offsite report of 5 branches on random basis. Accordingly, the amount of defaulted loans of the bank stands at Tk 9,569 crores. Out of this, the default against the loan is Tk 9,242 crores. And the offshore banking unit defaulted on Tk 327 crore. According to this, the bank is supposed to keep a provision of Tk 7,419 crores against domestic loans. Apart from this, Tk 1,704 crores against loans under court suspension, Tk 128 crores against loans of offshore banking units and Tk 26 crores against other assets. However, Deputy Governor Khurshid Alam dismissed the information that came out of the inspection. In the light of the information provided by the bank by threatening the concerned officials, he ordered to show the default of only Tk 1,716 crore and provision of Tk 1,153 crore. A 10 per cent dividend was arranged with reference to the governor when the inspecting officials tried to convince the matter in various ways.
An inspection-related official of SIBL gave a status on his Facebook page highlighting the incident. There he wrote, ‘After coming to the inspection department, I had to take a big shock. We had to bring the irregularities of Tk 8 thousand crore to only Tk 50 crores. I inform the Executive Director, Director and Additional Directors – this is not possible at all. They were also not willing to give it up. But Khurshid Alam, the deputy governor of our inspection department, called us all and forced us. Forced to do the irregularity. He said, in any case, arrangements should be made to pay 10 percent dividend to the concerned bank. The irregularity figure comes to only Tk 50 crores. We said, the matter needs to be informed to the governor. He said, he will inform the governor verbally. I later heard that the governor also agreed to it. Since then, I can no longer puff my chest and say – I do not sign any wrongful note.’
Khurshid Alam told on the telephone yesterday, “I don’t remember properly,” when asked about the allegation of providing such benefits in return for taking a bribe of 7 crore rupees. But from the moral point of view, it does not come into question. Until today, no one has been able to feed a cup of tea. He forgot such a big event so quickly – he said, “I will go to the office and look at the file.” But I don’t remember now. I was under a lot of pressure with the responsibility of 61 banks. After becoming the deputy governor, I was under a lot of pressure with the responsibility of 14 departments. He said, “I worked honestly when I was there. After giving the file, I will be able to say why the irregularity happened, why it happened.
In 2017, S Alam Group took over SIBL with the help of Bangladesh Bank and an intelligence agency. Now the entrepreneurial managers of the bank are carrying out various programs including human bonds to get back the ownership. The bank’s annual financial report showed total deposits of Tk 35,739 crore till last December. And the amount of investment shown is Tk 36,082 crores. Officials believe that most of the loans created after 2017 have been taken by S Alam Group.
Meanwhile, officials staged an unprecedented protest last Wednesday calling the governor and deputy governors of Bangladesh Bank corrupt. The unprecedented protest was held for unethically lending thousands of crores of taka to some companies including S Alam Group, helping in money laundering, illegally taking over banks, and other frauds.