FiNal Approvals of New Five banks In Bangladesh to Operates banking Function;NRB Commercial Bank,Union Bank,South Bangla Agricultural Bank,Meghna Bank,Modhumoti Bank,Farmers Bank,Midland Bank

(Source:BSS) Bangladesh Bank (BB) approved Five new banks to start their business.

Those banks are- 

1. NRB Commercial Bank of US expatriate Bangladeshi engineer Farasat Ali, 
2. Union Bank of former president and JP Chairman HM Ershad, 
3. South Bangla Agricultural Bank of SM Amzad Hossain, 
4. NRB Bank of expatriate Bangladeshi in UK Iqbal Ahmed and 
5. Meghna Bank of parliament member HN Ashikur Rahman.

With these new banks, the number of banks in the country has now stood at 52 including public, private and foreign banks. The board put on hold the approval of another bank, Midland Bank of M Moniruzzaman, to review its business plan further,



On September 27, 2011, the central bank invited applications from people interested in setting up new commercial banks and received 37 applications. On April 17, 2012 the central bank issued letter of intent (LoI) to nine proposed banks, of which five got final approval.

Like the existing banks, the paid-up capital of the new banks would be taka 400 crore each.

Other Three banks did not get approval. Those are-

1. Modhumoti Bank, 
2. Farmers Bank and 
3. NRB bank.

 Among the three banks, the sponsors of the Farmers Bank and NRB bank could not fulfill the necessary capital requirement within the stipulated time-frame. Modhumoti Bank met the capital requirement, but has not given its business plan to BB yet.