Staff Reporter :
S Alam Group alone has taken over half of the total loans of Islami Bank Bangladesh, the bank’s newly appointed chairman Md. Obayed Ullah Al Masud said.
“S Alam Group’s companies have taken half of the total loan distributed by the Islami bank. Recovering those loans is the challenge for the bank now,” the chairman said after meeting with Bangladesh Bank (BB) Governor Dr. Ahsan H. Mansur on Thursday.
He said the total disbursed loans of Islami Bank are around Tk 1.75 lakh crore. Besides, S Alam Group alone took more than half or Tk 87,500 crore from the bank.
He, however said, these was not the final account. It needs another week to get the complete information about the loan distributions.
“The group depreciated the assets and took out the debt. His assets are already being reassessed. Also, the collaterals against the loan will not be covered,” the new chairman said.
He said in these circumstances, the bank has sent a letter to the Law Ministry to find out the assets that are outside the collateral.
He said, when the new board took over, Tk 2,300 crore was short. It is decreasing every day.
“We optimistic the situation will return to a positive trend within this year. Many customers will not have the problem of withdrawing money after today. Because the withdrawals are less than the amount deposited in the last week,” the chairman said.
Replying to a query over what kind of action is being taken against various officials who have cooperated with S. Alam in such unlawful dealings, he said, “In this situation, the bank authority does not want to move the officials down now. If you hit the bottom now, everything will collapse.”
He said that several of the above are already being removed. All will be removed gradually. Action will be taken according to rules. No one will be excused.
He said that the authority has made a plan to recover the worse situation gradually.
“A roadmap has been drawn up to turn the bank around. This roadmap is done in three phases-First of all to find out and take various steps from the beginning of the new board till December 31.
Secondly, the year 2025-26 has been given as the turnaround year. Third, 2027-29 will be the leap forward years,” the chairman said.
He expressed optimism that the Islami bank will reach its glorious age soon with the cooperation of all.