Now First Security Islami Bank freed from S Alam Group

S Alam Group’s control over First Security Islami Bank Ltd (FSIBL) ended today after the Bangladesh Bank reconstituted the board of the Shariah-based bank, which was heavily dominated by individuals linked to the Chattogram-based conglomerate.
The central bank dissolved the previous 11-member board, where Mohammad Saiful Alam, founder of S Alam Group, was chairman.
Alam’s wife Farzana Parveen and four other relatives were also on the board of FSIBL, which the group established in 1999.
In their place, the Bangladesh Bank formed a new five-member board with independent directors.
FSIBL is the fifth bank to have its board restructured as Islami Bank, Social Islami Bank, Global Islami Bank and Union Bank underwent the same over the last couple of weeks.
The central bank appointed Abdul Mannan, who was forced to resign from Islami Bank Bangladesh in 2017 at ‘gunpoint’, as chairman of the new board of FSIBL.
The four new independent directors are Azizur Rahman, former executive director of the central bank, Md Abdul Kuddus, former deputy managing director of Uttara Bank, Md Saiful Alam, associate professor of accounting of information systems at University of Dhaka, and Raghib Ahsan, a chartered accountant.
The new board was constituted as per section 45 of the Bank Companies Act, 1991 to protect the interests of depositors and ensure good governance, the central bank said in a letter to FSIBL’s managing director.