Bangladesh Development Bank PLC. is a state-owned commercial bank in Bangladesh.[1] The bank has one of the highest loan default rates in Bangladesh.[2][3]
History
Bangladesh Development Bank PLC. was established on 16 November 2009 as a Public Limited Company by merging the state-owned Bangladesh Shilpa Bank with the Bangladesh Shilpa Rin Sangstha; both were established on 31 October 1972.[4][5] Bangladesh Development Bank started in 2010 with 534 court cases concerning 21 billion taka and 24.6 billion taka in written off liabilities.[1]
Santi Narayan Ghosh was appointed chairperson of the Bangladesh Development Bank in September 2012.[6]
In 2016, former managing director of Karmasangsthan Bank, Mushtaque Ahmed, and former deputy managing director of Rupali Bank Limited, Md Abu Hanif Khan, were appointed directors of Bangladesh Development Bank.[7]
The bank has had issues with loan defaulting, as of 2018, the total defaulted loans at the bank stood at 23.32 billion taka.[8] On 11 June 2019, the Anti-Corruption Commission sued for officials of the bank for allegedly embezzling 250 million taka from the bank.[9] The commission arrested the former general manager of the bank, Syed Nurur Rahman Kadri, from Dhaka in November 2019.[10] Other officials accused by commission were Dewan Mohammad Ishak, Assistant General Manager, and Dinesh Chandra Saha, principal officer, in the embezzlement case by Dhaka Trading and its owner Tipu Sultan .[11]
On 27 November 2022, Md. Habibur Rahman Gazi was appointed managing director of Bangladesh Development Bank.[12] On 26 February 2019, Mohammad Mejbahuddin was appointed chairperson of the bank.[13] The headquarters of the bank caught fire in October 2020.[14]AHM Mustafa Kamal, Minister of Finance, considered merging Bangladesh Development Bank and BASIC Bank in 2021.[15] In November 2021, Shamima Nargis was appointed chairperson of the bank.[16]
In 2022, Bangladesh Development Bank signed an agreement with Bank Asia to work with Western Union for remittance.[17] It is part of a consortium of six banks financing the Bashundhara Gold Refinery of Bashundhara Group.[18][19]