Monirul Alam of DOT
The Bangladesh Bank (BB) has postponed its pre-scheduled meeting of Board of Directors yesterday over quorum-crisis, delaying again the approval of new banks and the half-yearly monetary policy for the January-June period.
“It has happened unexpectedly at the last moment due to quorum-crisis,” said Sirajul Islam, executive director and spokesperson for the central bank, last evening.
He said one of the board members has regretted for his inability to attend the meeting owing to the death of a relative, with two others reasoning otherwise grounds.
The central bank’s board is constituted of eight members headed by Governor Fazle Kabir.
According to the spokesperson, the meeting was of a special importance as its agenda was included the issues of approving three new private banks and the half-yearly monetary policy for the second half of the current fiscal year.
The approval procedure of three new private commercial banks is in advance stage and was supposed to be cleared in yesterday’s meeting. The proposed banks aree: Bengal Commercial Bank Ltd of the Bengal Group, Peoples’ Bank Ltd of Bangladeshi expatriates in the USA and Awami League leader MA Kashem and Citizen Bank Ltd of family members of an influential minister.
Commenting on this, BB Spokesperson Sirajul Islam said new banks’ approval is a routine work and the procedure will continue its course duly.
“The monetary policy requires a little hurry. The meeting will be convened soon,” he said.
The central bank usually declares its half-yearly monetary policy stance in the third week of January for the first half of every year.
The monetary policy guides the commercial operation of banks and financial institutions, compliances with regard to the central bank’s regulatory aspects and controls credit flow to the private and public sectors.