Hasina inaugurates Bangladesh border guards-run Shimanto Bank

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has inaugurated Shimanto Bank Limited, a scheduled bank that will be run by Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB).

Senior Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 1 Sept 2016, 10:07 AM
Updated : 1 Sept 2016, 12:21 PM

She opened an account as the first client and to kick off the bank's operations formally in an event at the BGB headquarters in Dhaka's Peelkhana on Thursday.

"The Eid-ul-Azha is just a few days away. Shimanto Bank is my gift to all members of the force," she said at the ceremony.

Hasina spoke of her pleasure to be able to launch the bank and hoped that he BGB would take on more 'revenue-generating projects' in future.

She expects the bank to do more good to the BGB personnel and their families. "It would also generate new employments and play a role in the country's economy," the prime minister hoped.

The government on Aug 10 published a gazette enlisting 'Shimanto Bank' as a scheduled bank with Tk 4 billion authorised capital and Tk 1 billion in paid-up capital.

This gave the bank the authorisation to be in business like other commercial banks.

The bank will be owned by 'BGB Welfare Trust', which ensures welfare for the members of the border force, and will be headquartered in the newly erected building near Shimanto Square shopping mall at Jigatola.

It has plans to open branches this year at six places including in Khulna, Sylhet and Mymensingh. Twenty more branches will be opened within 2017 in other places of Bangladesh.

NRB Bank Managing Director Mokhlesur Rahman has been appointed as the MD of the Shimanto Bank. The director general of BGB will be its ex officio chairman.

Family members of BGB personnel will be given priority in getting jobs in the bank. They will also get special facilities while applying for loans.

The prime minister had given her consent to the bank when the demand was made at the BGB Day event at Peelkhana headquarters in 2014. She unveiled the bank's logo the same day next year.

The bank will finance BGB's own welfare-oriented initiatives like 'Alokito Shimanto' and 'Shamriddhir Pothe Shimanto' to create job opportunities with a view to ensuring economic development of the people living on the frontiers.

The prime minister on Thursday said, "We have allowed everyone to have their own bank. The army has one. The navy and the air force have been asking for their own banks. I have asked them to set up one jointly. And they have taken that initiative."