The Bangladesh Bank has imposed a Tk聽5 lakh fine on NRBC Bank for the private commercial bank鈥檚 failure to report suspicious transactions by a client and ordered it to take disciplinary actions against officials concerned for their failure to do duties and for providing false information.
The central bank also instructed NRBC Bank to investigate the roles of various officials, including the branch manager, the branch鈥檚 anti-money laundering compliance officer, the bank鈥檚 chief AML compliance officer, and others responsible for oversight during the period from May 18, 2021 to April 7, 2022.
The central bank informed the NRBC Bank鈥檚 managing director of these actions on October 20.
According to the central bank鈥檚 report, NRBC Bank鈥檚 client Md Rezaul Bashir, with an account with the R Nizam Road branch of the bank, had been conducting suspicious transactions over the period.
While NRBC Bank identified these transactions as potentially illicit, it failed to report them in a timely manner to the Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit, violating the Money Laundering Prevention Act of 2012.
If the fine is not paid within seven days, the Bangladesh Bank will debit the amount from NRBC Bank鈥檚 current account with the central bank.
The BB asked the bank to take disciplinary actions against those involved and report the measures taken by it to the central bank within 30 days.
NRBC Bank managing director Md Rabiul Islam did not respond to requests for comments on these matters.
The central bank also found that NRBC Bank misled it by claiming that it did not have national identification information for sponsor-director Abu Bakr Chowdhury.
However, a BB鈥檚 inspection found his NID attached to documents related to Baizid Industries Limited, where he is the owner.
Consequently, the BB issued a show-cause notice requiring all directors, including Abu Bakr, along with the managing director, company secretary, and other personnel involved, to submit explanations within 14 days on why disciplinary actions should not be taken.
The BB report said that NRBC Bank also provided conflicting information on the shareholding position of its sponsor-directors.
The bank reported that the sponsor-directors currently held 68 per cent and general shareholders 31.94 per cent of the bank鈥檚 shares, which did not match with the data given to a BB in spection team on January 1, 2023.
The BB instructed the bank to reduce non-resident Bangladeshi sponsor-directors鈥� shareholdings to 50 per cent within six months, warning that a failure to comply with the instruction would constitute an offense under the Bank Company Act 1991.
Further, the BB demanded a comprehensive report on the reclassification of sponsor shareholders from non-resident Bangladeshi to resident status, along with documentation, within 30 days.
Due to failure to meet licensing condition No 4 and demonstrating inefficiency and negligence, the BB ordered the bank to impose disciplinary measures on officials of the relevant department and report compliance within one month.
According to a Bangladesh Bank financial integrity and customer services department report in 2022, there were numerous allegations of corruption, money laundering and recruitment business against a number of board members and top management of NRB Commercial Bank, especially its chairman Parvez Tamal.
The BB inspection team in 2022 found that Parvez and eight other directors were directly involved in the recruitment business as their company, NRB Management Ltd, recruited a total of 3,714 people between January 2021 and April 2022 at NRBC Bank, which was a conflict of interest.
NRBC Management Limited charged about Tk聽11.19 crore during the period as a service charge.
