Shawdesh Desk:

Bangladesh Bank Governor Abdur Rouf Talukder said a section of directors in banks are considering themselves as ‘owners’ while other bankers facilitating the irregularities.

“Ethics and good governance are important for banking sector. However, some banks can’t maintain such practice. As we observe, some directors think themselves as ‘owners’ of bank. And staffs are also responsible for supporting them,” Rouf Talukder told a programme at Bangladesh Institute of Bank Management (BIBM) in the capital on Saturday.

The banking sector think tank organised the 21st edition of ‘Nurul Matin memorial lecture’ focusing on ‘ethics in banking’.

Grameen Bank chairman AKM Saiful Majid delivered keynote speech while Governor Abdur Rouf Talukder presided over the session.

The governor mentioned that there are clear directives on role of directors and managers in the Bank Company Act.

He also considered the ‘malpractice’ in social corporate responsibility fund of some financial intuitions.

“We find that some banks spent money in picnic from CSR fund due to lack of good governance. I think, we need immediate action to ensure transparency, accountability, information sharing and ethical practice in the banking sector,” he said.

In keynote, Prof Saiful Majid mentioned that the financial sector of the country has been experiencing trouble over last four decades due to ‘unhealthy practice’ of corporate entities.

“The greedy mindset of bankers and loan scams of Basic, Padma, Islami and Sonali Banks have downgraded the confidence of commoners in the sector. The scams are outcome of politicisation of financial sector and greedy corporate management,” Prof Majid, former director of IBA at Dhaka University, said.

Prof Majid claimed that some bank owning families and bankers are responsible for increasing trend of fraud and money laundering.

The noted academician blamed ‘unethical practice’ of management and bankers for crisis in financial sector over last three decades.

In the keynote, Prof Majid focused on skills of chief executives to maintain good governance in the respective banks.

“The CEO should have quality and ethical mindset. It should be upto the mark and beyond question,” he said.

The keynote presenter brought some of the issues – lack of good governance, greedy mind of bankers, and absence of transparency and ethical practices for increasing trend of bad loans in the banks.

BIBM Director General Akhtaruzzaman made address of welcome while director Ashraf Al Mamun made vote of thanks on the occasion.