Bangladesh Bank Governor Dr Atiur Rahman speaks at a meeting with chief executive officers of non-bank financial institutions at the central bank headquarters in Dhaka yesterday.

The Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) of non-bank financial institutions yesterday urged Bangladesh Bank to protect their job and empower them in protesting alleged irregularities being committed by the directors.

They came up with the demand at CEO’s meeting with Bangladesh Bank held at its headquarters in the city.

The demand was raised in the backdrop of serious irregularities committed by the directors of the financial institutions.

Bangladesh Bank Governor Atiur Rahman presided over the meeting while its high officials and Managing Directors and CEOs of all the financial institutions were present.

“We could not stop the interference of the directors in loan disbursement activities as we are not in a secured position as yet to raise our voices,” said Asad Khan, managing director of Prime Finance and Investment Limited.

As the termination procedures of the CEOs are easy now, it is difficult for them to protest any irregularity committed by any director, he told the reporters after the meeting.

He observed that not only the Bangladesh Bank’s protection but also the CEO’s responsibility are equally needed for stopping all sorts of corruption in loan disbursement by the directors. He also demanded the protection for the CEOs of the non-bank financial institutions as like as Bangladesh Bank had earlier given the same protection to the CEOs of the commercial banks.

Earlier in December last year, Bangladesh Bank had issued a circular asking the bank’s board not to force the managing directors to resign.

The central bank issued the circular mainly to protect the MDs job and empower them in protesting irregularities by directors.

As recently, some MDs have lost their job under board pressure in some banks. In this perspective, they had urged the central bank to issue a guideline to protect their jobs so they could raise their voice in case of wrongdoing by the board of directors.

“Bangladesh Bank investigation found different types of irregularities including loan sanction against fake accounts, divert these loans to another sectors, showing the classified loans as unclassified and approve loans beyond the single borrower exposure limit into the non bank financial institutions,” said Bangladesh Bank Deputy Governor SK Sur Chowdhury.

Some financial institution’s directors have been found in a tendency to violate the banking rules. In some cases, directors, who are not in existing board, have also been detected in taking policy decision attending the board meeting, which is a serious violation of rules, Sur told the reporters.

He said, “CEOs of NBFIs have also been found in involvement with these irregularities and we have already removed some of the directors and CEOs over the allegation of committing irregularities”.

Despite severe warning and taking punitive action by Bangladesh Bank some financial institutions are still busy in doing irregularities by hiding information, he observed.

“Bangladesh Bank will show zero tolerance if it finds any anomalies in its investigation which is underway,” he warned.