Bangladesh Bank governor Atiur Rahman on Monday said that no major changes were needed in the existing operational structure of Grameen Bank.
Amid criticism over the government move to split the Nobel prize winning bank, Atiur said, ‘Bangladesh Bank is obliged to carry out annual inspections of Grameen Bank. On the basis of these inspections, the central bank has not found anything that requires major changes in how Grameen Bank operates.’
‘Moreover, I should clarify that Bangladesh Bank has had nothing to do with the Grameen Bank Commission’, he said at a seminar organised by the Institute of Microfinance in PKSF auditorium at Agargaon in the capital.
Institute of Microfinance organised the seminar titled ‘Are Microcredit Marticipants in Bangladesh Trapped in Poverty and Debt?’ presided over by Palli Karma Sahayak Foundation chairman Qazi Kholiquzzaman Ahmad.
The comments of Atiur, who recently got extension as the central bank governor, came at a time when the government was facing
widespread criticism over its alleged move to split the bank into 19 entities.
The government-formed Grameen Bank Commission, headed by former secretary Mamunur Rashid, recently proposed that Grameen Bank Ordinance should be amended to turn it into an institution like Bangladesh Shilpa Bank the majority of stakes of which would be held by the government.
The commission also observed that Grammen Bank, founded by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, could be operated like the Rural Electrification Board.
The separate entities will have no legal, managerial or financial connection with each other. The existing Grameen Bank headquarters at Mirpur in Dhaka could be assigned as the main regulators.
Yunus and elected-directors of the bank and different professional bodies censured the government move to break up the institution.
Institute of Microfinance executive director MA Baqui Khalily, former PKSF managing director Kazi Mesbah Uddin Ahmed and BRAC executive director Mahbub Hossain also addressed the programme.
-With New Age input
