Home ›› 04 Apr 2023 ›› Front
The Bangladesh Bank (BB) has upheld the fine imposed on Al-Arafah Islami Bank Ltd over US dollar price manipulation.
The central bank’s Board of Directors at its 427th meeting, presided over by BB Governor Abdur Rouf Talukder, on Sunday rejected the bank’s plea to waive the fine, said a senior BB official, requesting anonymity.
The official said the banking regulator had imposed a fine on a few banks for manipulating USD prices last year. Al-Arafah Islami Bank later applied to the central bank to waive the fine.
However, BB Executive Director and spokesman Md Mezbaul Haque declined to comment on the matter.
The central bank in August last year had sent show-cause notices to managing directors (MD) of six banks for allegedly profiting more from selling US dollars.
After that, more banks faced the show-cause notice of the central bank.
The BB Board of Directors also made decisions about the banking diploma mandatory for central bank officials.
A few days ago, BB made the banking diploma mandatory for bankers to get promoted to senior officers and above to increase their skills and efficiency.
The proposed “Nagad Finance PLC” also obtained a licence from BB to run its business as a non-bank financial institution (NBFI) on Sunday. The new NBFI obtained a letter of intent in August last year.
Nagad Ltd, which currently operates the mobile financial service (MFS) of the Bangladesh Post Office, plans to roll out an MFS under the new NBFI, said BB officials.
They said the MFS will act as a subsidiary of Nagad Finance with 51 per cent of its shares, while the rest will be owned by existing directors of Nagad Ltd.
However, the BB spokesman said that Nagad will have to obtain an MFS licence from the central bank.
With the addition of Nagad Finance, the total number of NBFIs in the country will be 36.
