‘Appoint honest men in bank boards’

Bangladesh Bank Governor Atiur Rahman has urged the government to appoint honest and able professionals on the board of state-owned banks to ensure transparency and accountability and for better service.

He was unveiling the cover of the annual report of Bangladesh Bank’s Financial Integrity and Customer Services Department (FICSD), which settles complaints of the clients on Monday afternoon in Dhaka.

The governor also requested the government to remove the dishonest, unskilled and opportunist directors from boards of state-owned banks.

The report has given an account of how many clients lodged complaints with the central banks, how many of them were settled and in which way, who topped the default list and how much they cooperated with Bangladesh Bank to settle the complaints in 2013-14 financial year.

Bangladesh Bank Deputy Governor SK Sur Chowdhury and Executive Director SM Moniruzzaman, Consumers Association of Bangladesh (CAB) President Golam Rahman, Association of Bankers, Bangladesh Chairman Ali Reza Iftekhar and several bank clients were present at the ceremony.

The governor said: “Banking sector is very sensitive, because trust of clients is all important. We’re trying to strengthen the banking sector gradually.

“At least 20 initiatives for reforms were taken in last several years. Still some accidents are happening. We learn from our mistakes.”

He also urged private banks to improve the quality of their service.

Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith had recently come out strongly against political appointments in bank boards.

FICSD report contents

The FICSD report suggests client complaints against commercial banks is on the rise.

According to the report, 4,476 clients registered complaints in 2013-14 FY, an increase by 180 from the previous year’s number.

Trade bill-related complaints accounted for most complaints --39.51 percent of the total.

Banking-related complaints account for 27.42 percent of the total.

Other complaints involve loan and advance, remittance, mobile banking, and debit and credit cards.

The report said Bangladesh Bank settled 4,291 complaints out of 4,476 in 2013-14 FY.

Bangladesh Bank Deputy General Manager Swapan Kumar Saha, who presented the report, said FICSD officials found that state-owned banks were not cooperating with them to the extent desirable.

According to the report, clients of 10 banks registered around one-third of the complaints.

They are state-owned Sonali, Janata, Agrani and Bangladesh Krishi banks and private sector Islami, Prime, Brac, Mercantile, Premier and Shahjalal banks.

Among the foreign banks, the highest number of complaints was lodged against Standard Chartered Bank.