Wrong leadership may bring havoc in Pubali Bank

Staff Correspondent: Pubali Bank going to increase capital by offering bond worth Tk 700 crore soon as the present management has put the bank in the shortfall in respect of capital, provision against its risky loans and advances, which is not manageable with raising capital.
The clients, borrowers, officers and stake holders of Pubali Bank Limited have no confidence on the present management. Many corporate clients have already switched to other banks due to the non-cooperative behaviour of the top management of the bank.
Once sinking boat-the Pubali Bank has been salvaged by renowned bankers like Kazi Abdul Mazid, Khondker Ibrahim Khaled, Helal Ahmed Chowdhury; now it is again on the declining trend due to the poor leadership. Some of them commented, “Is Pubali Bank marching to a ‘black hole’ again?
Halim Chowdhury has been given charges of Managing Director of Pubali Bank for a tenure of 3 years but his managerial performance was ‘very disheartening’ in respect of the client handling and slower decision giving in all of the important issues. The customer-banker relationship during the era of Halim Chowdhury has declined at the lowest level. As a result, the client base of the bank stood atsub-standard level.
On the other hand, branch managers were afraid of his unwanted punishment, if anyone perform his regular duties in respect of loan disbursement, recovery and reschedule activities without his knowledge. None can work without the consent of Halim Chowdhury, whether it is lawful or not, said many of the managers.
The board of directors of Pubali Bank has understood the situation and has not allowed further increase of job tenure for Halim Chowdhuury on the last moment of expiry of his first term tenure.
All on a sudden, Khan Chowdhury Shafiul Islam has been given charges of Managing Director for a period of only two years due to limitation of his age as 65 years. But he has not been able to perform his duties with freedom due to the illegal interference of his twice Engr. Mohammad Ali.
Mohammad Ali, an engineering background, joined Pubali Bank as General Manager with the support of an influential director. Mohammad Ali was then promoted to the Deputy Managing Director and Additional Managing Director,superseding many competent career officers of the bank due to the blessings of his relative director.
Mohammad Ali recently has been given the current charge of Managing Director and waiting for the full charge of Managing Director on January 12. But the board of directors, has adopted a ‘wait and see’ policy upto the annual closing 2022 till December 31 to see the performance of Mohammad Ali.
Sources told Daily Industry that Mohammad Ali now working for showing a charismatic performance, making some ‘window dressing’ and artificial profit, the sources added.
Many corporate clients of Pubali Bank told Daily Industry that the dealing of Engineer Mohammad Ali is very ‘non-professional’ and ‘uncourteous’.We are in very ‘discomfort’ with the recent relationship of our beloved bank as the top management including the current charge Managing Director don’t allow us in the ‘ethical banking’, they added.
The clients said that Mohammad Ali neither listen our request nor follow the rule of banking norms in dealings. He treats us like ‘bank defaulter’ and ‘money sucker’ despite our loan is regular, they pointed out.
Mostafa Kamal, a corporate client of Pubali Bank has expressed to switch his business from Pubali Bank said, there are 65 commercial banks operating in the country, so why we will face such a ‘worst dealing’in Pubali Bank.
A senior officer of Pubali Bank, who doesn’t want to quote his name, said that Mohammad Ali has no leadership quality to lead Pubali Bank for holding the largest network in private sector commercial banking including branches, deposit and advances. If the board make him full-fledged Managing Director, then many of the senior level officers will leave Pubali Bank, they added.
A former Managing Director of Pubali Bank, who doesn’t want to be named, saidDaily Industry that some of the board members have been opposing strongly of the appointment of Mohammad Ali as Managing Director. They are also finding out alternative candidate, he pointed out.
Monzurur Rahman, Chairman of Pubali Bank did not respond in phone regarding the new appointment of CEO for his bank but another influential director said that we know Mohammad Ali is not competent enough for the post of CEO for the oldest and largest private commercial bank of Bangladesh.
A deputy governor of Bangladesh Bank told that Pubali Bank should be more cautious in appointing CEO as the portfolio of the bank is high and the responsibility is also bigger.
An economist, who worked for World Bank for long 35 years, said banks should be careful in recruiting top management officials including Managing Director as the CEOs decision may bring havoc for any financial institution.
There are many examples in Bangladesh’s banking industry that the bad leadership was the cause of collapse of bank and heart the economy, he pointed out.