Rejoinder, our reply

The Islami Bank Bangladesh Limited (IBBL) has sent a rejoinder to a report headlined “IBBL hides Tk3,259cr default loan,” published by The Business Post on January 8 2023.

Here is the full text of the rejoinder

The news titled ‘IBBL hides Tk3259cr loan’ published in your prominent daily on January 8, 2023 has drawn our attention. We are sending herewith IBBL’s clarification regarding the news.

“The information published in The Business Post on January 8, 2023 regarding Islami Bank Bangladesh Limited’s investments favoring M/s Murad Enterprise (Chaktai branch), United Super Traders (Jubilee Road branch) and Century Food Products (Khatunganj Corporate branch) were not presented properly.

The above mentioned institutions are our investment clients for long who have been conducting banking activities with Islami Bank Bangladesh Limited with a long experience in managing import and trading business.

Such investments are renewed every year as part of the bank’s investment policy and regular banking operations. Following this, the said investments disbursed in November-December 2021 were renewed in 2022.

Mentionable that the investments disbursed in 2021 were adjusted with profits before due date. Since all the three investment customers adjusted their dues before the due date, their investments have not become overdue or classified.”

We humbly request you to publish our statement in your newspaper.

OUR REPLY

The rejoinder ignores the fact that this particular report is fully based on the findings of the Bangladesh Bank – a well-known and highly reputed government body. The facts in our article came from official documents of the regulator.

A central bank letter, of which The Business Post has obtained a copy, clearly mention that the regulator had recently asked IBBL to show the Tk 3,259 crore loans under bad/loss category, and take initiative to recover these overdue loans. We, therefore, stand by our report.