Govt to consider Padma Bank’s plea seeking merger with state bank: Kamal

The government will consider the application of Padma Bank seeking merger with any state bank, Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal said today.

The minister said this responding to queries of journalists after a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Purchase.

Kamal said those who were involved with the corruption with the Padma Bank has already been sued and many of them jailed.   

Now the government will have to take steps for the sake of shareholders and borrowers of the bank, he said.

Recently, Padma Bank, the erstwhile Farmers Bank, in a letter to the finance ministry has sought to be merged with any state bank that fits the bill, in what seems to be a desperate effort to avoid further deterioration of its financial health.

The minister, however, said he has not seen the application yet.

The merger plea comes around three years past the government rescuing the lender from collapse in the wake of massive financial irregularities.

Established in 2013 as Farmers Bank, the lending agency had fallen prey to scamsters. A Bangladesh Bank investigation found that more than Tk 3,500 crore was siphoned off between 2013 and 2017.