Sikder Insurance representative denied nod to be NBL director

Bangladesh Bank has denied giving permission to a representative of Sikder Insurance Company to serve as a director of National Bank Ltd (NBL). 

Both the lender and insurer are affiliated with Sikder Group.

The lender had written a letter to the central bank on September 15, requesting for one Mohammad Sayed Ahmed Raza to be allowed to take on the directorship role.

The BB sent a reply on October 2, saying that another representative of the insurer, Shafiqur Rahman, was already acting as a director of the lender, for which the central bank could not grant the request. As per the company law, two representatives of one company are not allowed to hold directorship of a bank at the same time.

Meanwhile, Md Mehmood Husain, managing director of the lender, said the BB on October 2 stated of having no objection to Ron Haque Sikder and Rick Haque Sikder serving the bank as directors.

The sons of former National Bank chairman Zainul Haque Sikder alongside eight members of the Sikder family and two officials of Sikder Group were banned by the BB on April 13 from using international credit cards for two years.

The 12 faced the ban fort taking loans from National Bank beyond their credit card limits, grossly violating the banking rules.