Home
+
Published : 17 Jul 2026, 02:07 PM
Al-Arafah Islami Bank's board of directors has picked new leadership, after control of the bank passed to Chattogram-based KDS Group.
Veteran entrepreneur Badiur Rahman has returned as board chairman, a post he previously held between 2008 and 2016.
He replaces outgoing chairman Khwaja Shahriar, who has stayed on the new board as an independent director despite losing the chairmanship.
KDS Group's Managing Director Salim Rahman, meanwhile, has been named chairman of the executive committee.
He currently serves as first vice-president of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), the apex body for garment sector entrepreneurs.
Al-Arafah Islami Bank announced the formation of its new board on Thursday.
On Wednesday, Bangladesh Bank approved 14 shareholders of the bank as directors.
Together with the five existing independent directors, the board now has 19 members in total.
The bank had been run for close to two years by independent directors appointed by the central bank.
Of the 14 newly inducted shareholder-directors, six belong to KDS Group, giving the conglomerate outsized sway over the bank's policy decisions, including loan approvals.
Entrepreneur Badiur is a business partner of KDS Group and owner of Pacific Jeans.
According to Al-Arafah's website, Liakat Ali Chowdhury, a sponsor director of the bank and entrepreneur behind the Chattogram-based ship-breaking industry Asadi Steel, has been appointed vice-chairman.
Farid Uddin Ahmed, a representative director on behalf of KDS Textile, has taken over as the chairman of the risk management committee.
The audit committee chairmanship has gone to M Abu Yousuf, an independent director carried over from the previous board.
Under Bangladesh Bank rules, a commercial bank can have a maximum of three sub-committees. Alongside the top leadership posts, KDS Group representatives now head two of those three sub-committees.
Other board members include KDS Group chairman Khalilur Rahman; Najmul Ahsan Khaled, entrepreneur director of the bank and head of Khaled Group of Companies, the parent firm of Nourish Poultry Feed; and Enayet Ullah, president of Old Dhaka's Moulvibazar Business Association.
Enayet is also an entrepreneur director and former chairman of the bank.
He contested in the February election from the Dhaka-7 constituency on a Jamaat-e-Islami ticket and lost.
Also joining the board are businessman Ahmedul Haque; Abdus Salam, son of the bank's former chairman Mir Ahmed Sowdagar and managing director of Chattogram's Mir Group; Imadur Rahman, entrepreneur director of the bank and of Sylhet's Al Haramain Group; Entrepreneur Director Rafiqul Islam; and Entrepreneur Director Anwar Hossain, managing director of Modern Group of Companies.
The newly added directors also include Mahbub Ahmed, representing KDS Garments, and Sharif Uddin Taslim, representing KY Steel Mills, another KDS Group company.
Bangladesh Bank dissolved the boards of more than a dozen banks as part of a wider banking sector reshuffle following the Awami League government's fall during 2024 July Uprising.
In August that year, the central bank dissolved Al-Arafah's previous board and installed a fresh one made up of five independent directors.
Five of those independent directors, including Shahriar, remain on the new board.
