B Mirror Report: Individual depositors of nine ailing non-banking financial institutions (NBFIs) that are to be liquidated will get their principal back before Ramadan in February, Governor Ahsan H. Mansur said at a press conference at the Bangladesh Bank head office .

The governor said the legal process to dismantle these institutions will begin this week.

Last December, the Central Bank Board approved the closure of these financial institutions under the newly enacted Bank Resolution Ordinance 2025.

The 9 NBFIs that are being liquidated are FAS Finance, Bangladesh Industrial Finance Company (BIFC), Premier Leasing, Fareast Finance, GSP Finance, Prime Finance, Aviva Finance, People’s Leasing and International Leasing.

According to the central bank, these institutions have total deposits of Tk 15,370 crore. Of this, retail deposits are Tk 3,525 crore and deposits from bank and corporate customers are Tk 11,845 crore.

Central bank officials said the government has verbally approved about Tk 5,000 crore to return depositors’ money.

The governor said that the work of evaluating the assets of the institutions will start from this week. After the asset evaluation, it will be understood whether their assets are negative or positive. Based on that evaluation, it will be decided whether the shareholders will get anything or not.

Forensic audit to look for fraud in merged banks

Governor Ahsan H. Mansur said that forensic audits will be conducted again on the five banks currently in the process of merging. The audit will be conducted to identify officials who were involved in irregularities and fraud during the previous government’s tenure.

The governor warned that those found responsible could lose their jobs.

He said that in the last two days, depositors have withdrawn Tk 107 crore from the banks that are to be merged. At the same time, new deposits of Tk 44 crore have also been made.

He said, “A total of 13,314 transactions have been made in the last two days. The amount of withdrawals is much lower than we expected.”

Among the five banks, the highest amount of Tk 660 crore was withdrawn from Exim Bank.

The governor said that depositors’ confidence has not been completely destroyed, because new deposits are also coming in at the same time. He assured that those who are making new deposits can withdraw their money at any time.

It was announced at the press conference that the new large commercial bank ‘Sammilit Islami Bank PLC’, formed through bank merger, will be launched on January 19.

The governor said that although the new bank will be privately run, it will be temporarily owned by the government. Ownership will be transferred to a suitable investor within three years.