Rejoinder and our reply

Padma Bank has sent a rejoinder to a report of The Daily Star published on August 25 with the headline “Padma Bank struggles to return fixed deposits”. 

Following is the text of the rejoinder signed by the bank’s Managing Director Md Ehsan Khasru:

The report has inaccurately portrayed the overall health of Padma Bank. We hereby protest and express our disagreement to accept this.

Unfortunately, the report seemed to have focused on only one case – the delay to pay the dues of Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority Employees’ Pension Fund. And this presentation has overshadowed our payment to many large government organisations while the report mentioned only few payments.

This may lead to form a wrong perception of the bank’s capability and willingness, which needs to be clarified.

The fact that we want to reiterate is, all these government entities eventually acknowledged to retain these funds with our bank and are extending us their support, which is crucial for this new journey of Padma Bank.

We would also like to inform that as a responsible and transparent institution, we have been paying the due interest to all our term-deposit customers on their funds as per terms of agreement.

To highlight our current financial strength since 2018, the bank recovered Tk 596.17 crore from its disbursed loans previously and collected a fresh deposit of Tk 1,344.88 crore.

The bank made a total payment of Tk 2,686.24 crore, of which Tk 345 crore was paid to government related institutions and state banks. Additionally, it paid Tk 480 crore to other corporate customers.

From a financial mismanagement in its early years when it was known as Farmers Bank, Padma Bank which took its new name on January 29, has made a spectacular comeback.

Our Reply

The Daily Star ran the report based on the latest central bank statement on Padma Bank’s deposit repayment performance till July 2 this year.

According to the central bank, a total of 18 government organisations parked Tk 1,323 crore in deposits with Padma Bank. Of the sum, the lender has returned only Tk 87.47 crore.

On July 14, the central bank also instructed Padma Bank to sit with government and non-governmental organisations to settle their fixed deposits, special notice deposits and call money.

So, we stand by our report.