Pubali Bank ( bn, পূবালী ব্যাংক) is the largest private

commercial bank A commercial bank is a financial institution which accepts deposits from the public and gives loans for the purposes of consumption and investment to make profit. It can also refer to a bank, or a division of a large bank, which deals with cor ...

Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...

. It has more branches than any other private bank in the country. Monzurur Rahman is the present chairman of the bank.

History

Pubali Bank was started in

East Pakistan East Pakistan was a Pakistani province established in 1955 by the One Unit Scheme, One Unit Policy, renaming the province as such from East Bengal, which, in modern times, is split between India and Bangladesh. Its land borders were with India ...

as Eastern Mercantile Bank Limited in the year 1959 under Bank Companies Act 1913 by Bengali businessmen. After

independence of Bangladesh Independence of Bangladesh was declared on 26 March 1971, celebrated as Independence Day, from Pakistan. The Independence Day of Bangladesh is celebrated on 26 March when Sheikh Mujibur Rahman declared the Independence of Bangladesh. The Bangladesh ...

in 1971 this Bank was nationalized under

Bangladesh Bank Bangladesh Bank ( bn, বাংলাদেশ ব্যাংক) is the central bank of Bangladesh and is a member of the Asian Clearing Union. It is fully owned by the Government of Bangladesh. The bank is active in developing green bankin ...

's (nationalisation) Ordinance and renamed as Pubali Bank. Subsequently, Pubali Bank was denationalized in the year 1983 as a private bank and renamed as Pubali Bank Limited. The Bank signed a 100 million taka loan agreement with Uttara Finance and Investments Limited in 2007. In 2009, Pubali Bank had reserves worth 88.89 billion taka. It's non-performing loans went from 18.4 per cent in 2004 to 2.96 per cent. In February 2014, Bangladesh High Court Division remove eight members of the board of directors including chairman

Hafiz Ahmed Mazumder Hafiz Ahmed Mazumder (born 29 March 1935) is a Bangladesh Awami League politician, former chairman of the Bangladesh Red Crescent Society and Pubali Bank Limited, businessman, and a member of parliament. He served as the Chairman of the Board o ...

for not possessing the minimum required shares in response to a petition filed by Shafee Ahmed Chowdhury, a shareholder of the bank. Five million taka went missing in the bank's branch in

Chittagong Chittagong ( /ˈtʃɪt əˌɡɒŋ/ ''chit-uh-gong''; ctg, চিটাং; bn, চিটাগং), officially Chattogram ( bn, চট্টগ্রাম), is the second-largest city in Bangladesh after Dhaka and third largest city in B ...

in 2016 following which five employees of the bank were arrested. Three employees of the bank in Chittagong were sent to jail for embezzling 128.6 million taka from the bank. In January, Safiul Alam Khan Chowdhury was appointed managing director of Pubali Bank. In May, Habibur Rahman was appointed chairman of the bank. That's It Fashions Limited, a subsidiary of Ha-Meem Group, announced plans to purchase 11 million shares of Pubali Bank. In May 2019, Azizul Huq was elected chairman of the Pubali Bank. In 2021,

Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission The Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC) is the regulator of the capital market of Bangladesh, comprising Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) and Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE). The commission is a statutory body and attached to the Mini ...

approved 5 billion taka

perpetual bond A perpetual bond, also known colloquially as a perpetual or perp, is a bond with no maturity date, therefore allowing it to be treated as equity, not as debt. Issuers pay coupons on perpetual bonds forever, and they do not have to redeem the prin ...

s of the bank. It signed a 52 million USD loan agreement with

Bank Muscat Bank Muscat is a financial services provider in the Sultanate of Oman providing corporate banking, retail banking, investment banking, treasury, private banking and asset management. The bank, with assets worth US$ 31.9 billion in 2018, has the ...

. The Pubali Bank donated one million taka to

Bishwo Shahitto Kendro Bishwo Shahitto Kendro (BSK) ( bn, বিশ্ব সাহিত্য কেন্দ্র, meaning 'World-Literature Centre'), is a non-profit institution in Bangladesh to promote reading habits, enlightenment and progressive ideas among st ...

in October 2022. It received 50 million USD from the

British International Investment British International Investment, (formerly CDC Group plc, Commonwealth Development Corporation, and Colonial Development Corporation) is the development finance institution of the UK government. The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office ...

Board of directors

References

External links

Website

Pubali Bank Limited
{{Banks in Bangladesh Banks of Bangladesh Banks of Bangladesh with Islamic banking services Banks established in 1959