AB Bank (formerly Arab Bangladesh Bank) is a leading private sector bank in

Bangladesh Bangladesh, officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, eighth-most populous country in the world and among the List of countries and dependencies by ...

. AB Bank Limited was incorporated on 31 December 1981 and its the first commercial private bank in

History

AB Bank was established on 31 December 1981. This was the first joint venture private bank in Bangladesh. On 14 November 2007

Bangladesh bank Bangladesh Bank (BB; ) is the central bank of Bangladesh and is a member of the Asian Clearing Union. It is fully owned by the Bangladesh, Government of Bangladesh. The bank is active in developing green banking. and financial inclusion poli ...

approved the name change to AB Bank from Arab Bangladesh Bank. A former deputy managing director was charged with embezzling 3.25 billion

taka The taka (, , sign: , code: BDT, short form: Tk) is the currency of Bangladesh. In Unicode, it is encoded at . Issuance of banknotes 10 and larger is controlled by Bangladesh Bank, while the 2 and 5 govt. notes are the responsibility of the ...

from the bank. In February 2008, AB Bank was fined 100 million taka for violating securities law with excessive marginal loans. The majority of these loans from the merchant banking wing of AB Bank went to bank employees and their relatives. In 2014 AB bank completed its acquisition of Cashlink Bangladesh Limited. A former vice president and his wife were sentenced to life in prison for

embezzlement Embezzlement (from Anglo-Norman, from Old French ''besillier'' ("to torment, etc."), of unknown origin) is a type of financial crime, usually involving theft of money from a business or employer. It often involves a trusted individual taking ...

of 67.4 million taka from the bank in 2016. According to an investigation by Bangladesh Bank, AB Bank had laundered 1.65 billion taka to United Arab Emirates. The investigation identified Cheng Bao General Trading LLC and Pinnacle Global Fund Pte Limited for being involved in laundering the money. According to the Anti-Corruption Commission, M Morshed Khan, founder of the bank, unduly favored loans to

Citycell Pacific Bangladesh Telecom Limited, ( dba: Citycell) was the oldest mobile operator of Bangladesh. It was the 1st mobile operator company in Bangladesh and one of the pioneering telecommunications network companies in South Asia, along with Etis ...

which was also owned by him. On 14 June 2022, Justices Md Nazrul Islam Talukder and Kazi Md Ejarul Haque Akondo the High Court Division criticized the Anti-Corruption Commission and Bangladesh Police for not being able to arrest the 15 accused in the 1.76 billion taka embezzlement case.

References

Banks established in 1981 Banks of Bangladesh 1981 establishments in Bangladesh Banks of Bangladesh with Islamic banking services {{asia-bank-stub