Pubali Bank

Pubali Bank PLC.
Company type	Public limited company
Industry	Banking; Financial services;
Founded	1959; 65 years ago
Headquarters	26 Dilkusha Commercial Area, Dhaka, Bangladesh
Number of locations	491
Area served	Bangladesh
Key people	Monzurur Rahman; (Chairman)
Products	Retail banking; Corporate banking; Mortgage loans; Credit cards; Finance and insurance;
Operating income	৳17.718 billion (US$150 million) (2018)
Net income	৳3.627 billion (US$31 million) (2018)
Total assets	৳410.226 billion (US$3.5 billion) (2018)
Website	www.pubalibangla.com

Pubali Bank PLC. (Bengali: পূবালী ব্যাংক পিএলসি.) is the largest commercial bank in Bangladesh. It has more branches than any other autonomous bank in the country.^[1] Monzurur Rahman is the present chairman of the bank.

History

Pubali Bank was started in East Pakistan as Eastern Mercantile Bank Limited in 1959 under the Bank Companies Act 1913 by Bengali businessmen.^[2] After the independence of Bangladesh in 1971 the bank was nationalized under Bangladesh Bank's (nationalisation) Ordinance and renamed as Pubali Bank.^[2]

Subsequently, Pubali Bank was denationalized in the year 1983 as a private bank and renamed as Pubali Bank Limited.^[1]

The bank signed a ৳100 million loan agreement with Uttara Finance and Investments Limited in 2007.^[3]

In 2009, Pubali Bank had reserves worth ৳88.89 billion.^[4] It's non-performing loans went from 18.4 per cent in 2004 to 2.96 per cent.^[4]

In February 2014, High Court Division, Supreme Court of Bangladesh removed eight members of the board of directors including chairman Hafiz Ahmed Mazumder for not possessing the minimum required shares in response to a petition filed by Shafee Ahmed Chowdhury, a shareholder of the bank.^[5]^[6]

৳5 million went missing in the bank's branch in Chittagong in 2016 following which five employees of the bank were arrested.^[7]^[8] Three employees of the bank in Chittagong were jailed for embezzling ৳128.6 million from the bank.^[9] In January, Safiul Alam Khan Chowdhury was appointed managing director of Pubali Bank.^[10] In May, Habibur Rahman was appointed chairman of the bank.^[11] That's It Fashions Limited, a subsidiary of Ha-Meem Group, announced plans to purchase 11 million shares of Pubali Bank.^[12]

In May 2019, Azizul Huq was elected chairman of the Pubali Bank.^[13]

In 2021, Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission approved ৳5 billion perpetual bonds of the bank.^[14] It signed a US$52 million loan agreement with Bank Muscat.^[15]

The Pubali Bank donated ৳1 million to Bishwo Shahitto Kendro in October 2022.^[16] It received US$50 million from the British International Investment.^[17]

Board of directors


Name	Position	Reference
Monzurur Rahman	Chairman	^[18]
Moniruddin Ahmed	Director	^[18]
Habibur Rahman	Director	^[18]
Ahmed Shafi Choudhury	Director	^[18]
Fahim Ahmed Faruk Chowdhury	Director	^[18]
Rumana Sharif	Director	^[18]
M. Kabiruzzaman Yaqub	Director	^[18]
Musa Ahmed	Director	^[18]
Azizur Rahman	Director	^[18]
Md. Abdur Razzak Mondal	Director	^[18]
Rana Laila Hafiz	Director	^[18]
Mustafa Ahmed	Director	^[18]
Shahdeen Malik	Independent Director	^[18]
Mohammad Naushad Ali Chowdhury	Independent Director	^[18]
Mohammad Ali	Managing Director	^[18]