Bangladesh Bank (BB) is set to approve licence for new commercial banks in a meeting of its board of directors to be held on March 27.

A senior BB official said this but could not confirm how many banks will get approval from the board.

However, a member of the evaluation committee said seven commercial banks might get licence. “The board of directors is expected to approve seven banks, including two by Non-Resident Bangladeshis, in its meeting on March 27,” he added.

On September 27, 2011, the central bank invited applications from people interested in setting up new commercial banks. The BB asked the interested sponsors to submit their applications with a non-refundable bank draft of Tk 1000000 by November 30, 2011. The central bank’s scrutiny committee selected 16 applications out of a total 37 for the new banks.

Earlier, the central bank fixed the paid-up capital of Tk 2 billion for the new banks but it re-fixed the paid-up capital for a new bank at Tk 4 billion as per the revised Bank Companies Act. —BSS

The Daily Sun /Bangladesh/ 25th March 2012