Agrani Bank, which has antique gold coins worth over Tk. 100 crore in unclaimed lockers, is not keen on handing over the assets to the central bank, sources said.
In a recent letter, Bangladesh Bank (BB) has asked all state-owned commercial banks, including Agrani Bank, to hand over gold coins and other valuable assets lying in unclaimed lockers for more than 10 years to the central bank as those are considered the property of the state as per the Bank Company Act, 1991. The BB has asked state-owned commercial banks to hand over those valuable assets by July 31. But Agrani Bank said it has not received huge amount of rents during the period from its clients for preserving the lockers. “Agrani Bank has due rights to get the outstanding rents for protection of property. If the property is being handed over to BB, the bank would not be able to recover unpaid rents,” said an official of the Agrani Bank, seeking anonymity.
He said the sum of unpaid rent for those unclaimed lockers already crossed Tk. 2 crore.
He said, during the latest assessment in 2009 by professional gold traders, the bank management found value of gold coins and other valuables of the unclaimed lockers worth Tk. 10 crore. “But, the antique value of these gold coins is not less than Tk. 100 crore, according to gold traders,” he said.
According to him, the management of Agrani Bank has discussed the issue and analysed legal jurisdiction regarding the valuables. Now, they want to discuss this issue again in the next board meeting as the bank’s managing director preferred it.
Meanwhile, the central bank officials said Agrani Bank is spending time to increase the the amount of rent for preservation of the lockers to grab the property.
“Not only Agrani Bank, other state-owned banks also didn't pay heed to previous letters regarding handing over of unclaimed lockers’ valuables,” he said.
He added that many gold coins and jewellery found in unclaimed lockers at the Agrani Bank are more than 100 years old.

News: The Independent/ Bangladesh/ 25-Jul-2011