Boards of UCB Global and Union Bank abolished

Staff Correspondent: Bangladesh Bank has abolished the current board of directors of private sector United Commercial Bank (UCB), Global Islami Bank and Union Bank. At the same time, the bank has also constituted the new board of directors of the three banks.
Two of UCB’s board are shareholders and the remaining three are independent directors. Mohammad Nurul Amin, former MD of NCC and Meghna Bank has been appointed as the Chairman of Global Islami Bank. 4 people have been appointed independent directors along with him. Former MD of Islami Bank Farid Uddin Ahmedhas been appointed chairman of Union Bank. A 5-member board has been formed under his leadership.

In this regard, three separate letters were sent from Bangladesh Bank to the chief executives of three banks on Tuesday. Necessary steps have been taken in light of this. It is known that the board of the three banks will take over the responsibility of the bank within days. Through this, Union and Global Islami Bank were freed from the grip of S Alam Group. At the same time, UCB Bank was under the control of Saifuzzaman Chowdhury Javed’s family, the former minister of the ousted Awami League government.
S Alam Group took control of most of the shares from the market by buying them anonymously. Through those shares and with the influence of the ousted Awami League government, the two banks were taken over and looted extensively. As a result, the financial condition of both the banks became very weak. The current accounts of these banks with the central bank also went negative. The present government started reforming the banking sector after taking over.
As part of this, the board of National Bank, Islami Bank, Social Islami Bank has already been abolished and freed from the control of S Alam Group. Now two more banks have been freed from the grip of S Alam Group. At the same time, UCB was freed from Saifuzzaman Chowdhury’s control. Former directors have committed unprecedented looting in this bank.
Union and Global Islami Bank were among the six banks that had earlier been restricted by the central bank. Share trading of S Alam Group of these banks has also been banned. Earlier, Islami Bank Bangladesh, Social Islami and National Bank S Alam were deregulated.
According to sources, the Chairman of Union Bank was Dr. Salim Uddin, Chairman of Global Islami Bank was formerly Nazim Chowdhury. Meanwhile, various dramas were made in United Commercial Bank to keep their control. Rukmila Zaman, wife of Saifuzzaman Chowdhury, was earlier the chairman. They first changed the board on August 16. On that day, Roksana Zaman Chowdhury was made the chairman of the bank by changing the board. She is the sister of former land minister Saifuzzaman Chowdhury Javed.
On Tuesday, independent director Aparup Chowdhury was again changed to the chairmanship of the board. He is already associated with the bank. In a notification in this regard, UCB said that independent director Aparup Chowdhury was unanimously elected as the chairman of the board of directors of the bank in the meeting of the board of directors of the bank held on Tuesday at the head office of United Commercial Bank. Besides, Bashir Ahmed was elected as the chairman of the executive committee.
Knowing these facts, Bangladesh Bank dissolved the board of UCB on Tuesday night. At the same time, a new board has been formed. Sharif Zaheer and Tanveer Khan, shareholders of the bank, have been appointed as directors. Also, three independent directors have been appointed. They are former Executive Director of Central Bank Sajjad Hossain, former DMD of Agrani Bank Yusuf Ali and Chartered Accountant Obaidur Rahman.
Meanwhile, the four independent directors of Global Islami Bank are-former Executive Director of Bangladesh Bank Jamal Molla, former Deputy Managing Director (DMD) of Islami Bank Nurul Islam Khalifa, Professor of International Business Department of Dhaka University Abu Hena Reza Hasan, Chartered Accountant Muh. Mahmud Hossain.
The independent directors of Union Bank are former executive director of Bangladesh Bank Humayun Kabir, former deputy managing director of Rajshahi Agricultural Development Bank Mohammad Saiful Alam, professor of the Department of Banking and Insurance of Dhaka University. Shahidul Islam Zahid, Chartered Accountant Sheikh Zahidul Islam.