The Bangladesh Bank (BB) has shifted its board of directors' meeting to April 4 from March 27, the day scheduled for approving new commercial banks, officials said.

The names of 19 proposed commercial banks, including three non-resident Bangladeshi (NRB) banks, will be placed at the board meeting for approval.

"We've shifted the date of our board meeting as some BB directors will attend an important meeting of the national economic council (NEC) on the same day," an executive director of BB told the FE Sunday.

The chairman, along with three directors of the BB board, will attend the NEC meeting, the highest-level policy makers' meet, the official said while explaining the main reason behind shifting the date of the scheduled board meeting.

Currently, the central bank has a nine-member board of directors.

Meanwhile, the technical evaluation committee has already submitted its report, with scores of all 16 applications selected, to the application evaluation committee for establishing the new private commercial banks (PCBs).

Talking to the FE, another BB official said the technical evaluation committee had scored the applications after scrutinising their pros and cons.

"The application evaluation committee is now working on giving the job a final shape," the central bank official said, adding that a report with ranking of all the 16 proposed banks would be placed before the board for approval.

A four-member separate application evaluation committee, headed by Senior Deputy Governor of BB Abul Quasem, has been formed to finalise the evaluation report on the applications.

Earlier, 37 applications were submitted with the central bank for setting up new PCBs. Of them, 21 were rejected by a preliminary committee due mainly to the lack of necessary papers and documents.

On the other hand, names of the three proposed NRB banks -- NRB Commercial Bank Limited, NRB Bank Limited and NRB Bank Limited -- were placed before the board on March 15 for approval, but no final decision was taken at that meeting.

"The board will take the final decision on approval of the new banks, both PCBs and those involving NRBs," the central bank official noted.

Meanwhile, sources said a total of eight new commercial banks, including three NRB banks, might get approval at the upcoming board meeting.

Currently, a total of 47 commercial banks are in operation in Bangladesh.

Financial Express/Bangladesh/ 26th March 2012