Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN)- The central bank is now working on memos of maximum four proposed banks including the NRB Commercial Bank Limited, to be submitted in its the next board meeting on February 3 for approval, officials said.
The Bangladesh Bank (BB) officials have expected that a few number of banks including the NRB Commercial Bank might get the final nod from the board meeting after complying with all the preconditions successfully.
Meanwhile, the top management of the central bank started reviewing the relevant documents including business plans of the proposed banks before giving its final approval for issuance of licence for them.
Under the review initiative, a memo relating to the NRB Commercial Bank Limited was placed in a meeting of the board of directors of the central bank at its headquarters in the city Sunday with BB Governor Atiur Rahman in the chair.
Besides, Mr Dewan Mujibur Rahman, proposed to be Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the NRB Commercial Bank, presented a business plan before the board, a BB official said, adding that the board asked the would-be CEO to make a supplementary presentation covering more business aspects of the bank in the next meeting.
“Licences will be issued, if the BB board is satisfied with the business plans of the proposed banks,” a BB senior official told BBN in Dhaka.
He also said the BB was still working on relevant documents including tax-related issues and loan statutes of sponsors of the proposed banks through the Credit Information Bureau (CIB) of the central bank.
The central bank is now looking into tax-related issues concerning the local sponsors to make sure whether the blocked money for maintaining paid-up capital is taxed or not.
Under the existing rules, the paid-up capital of a new bank will not be less than BDT 4.0 billion, and sponsors of the non-resident Bangladeshi (NRB) banks will deposit their paid-up capital in foreign currency.
Earlier eight proposed banks applied to the BB for licences for starting their business on compliance with requirements as per the letter of intent (LoI).
The banks are Union Bank Limited, Farmers Bank Limited, Meghna Bank Limited, Midland Bank Limited, South Bangla Agriculture and Commerce Bank Limited, Modhumoti Bank Limited, NRB Commercial Bank Limited and the NRB Bank Limited.
Another proposed bank -NRB Global Bank Limited -has been allowed to complete formalities, as required by the LoI, by March 31 next.
On April 8 last year, the central bank accepted six proposals on running new private commercial banks (PCBs) to strengthen financial inclusion by bringing un-banked people under the banking network.
The BB earlier accepted proposals on three new commercial banks, sponsored by NRBs, to help boost the country’s foreign exchange inflow.
 
BBN/SSR/AD-21Jan13-8:33 am (BST)