National Bank asked to appoint MD by Apr 28

Bangladesh Bank has asked National Bank to appoint a managing director (MD) by April 28 as the private lender has been running operations without one for nearly three months.

A letter was issued on April 19 asking Chairman Monowara Sikder to immediately appointment an MD within the stipulated period, failing which will result in steps delineated in the Banking Companies Act 1991.

This was confirmed by Md Serajul Islam, spokesperson and an executive director of Bangladesh Bank.

Article 15 of the act says the central bank will appoint an administrator at a lender if it runs operations without an MD for three months.

Salary and other remunerations will be provided to the administrator by the bank, it says.

The tenure of the previous MD, Choudhury Moshtaq Ahmed, ended in the last week of January. Since then, the top executive position has remained vacant.

The bank's board had appointed Additional Managing Director ASM Bulbul as the acting MD.

And although Bulbul's job tenure ended on March 31, he tried to continue holding office until this month in a breach of regulations.

Against this backdrop, the central bank asked the National Bank chairman on April 6 to remove Bulbul from the post.

Shah Syed Abdul Bari now serves the bank as acting MD.

The Daily Star could not get a comment on the issue by the time this report was filed despite repeated attempts at contacting senior officials of the bank.