Pubali Bank PLC. (Bengali: পূবালী ব্যাংক) is the largest commercial bank in Bangladesh. It has more branches than any other autonomous bank in the country.[2] Monzurur Rahman is the present chairman of the bank.
Pubali Bank was started in East Pakistan as Eastern Mercantile Bank Limited in the year 1959 under Bank Companies Act 1913 by Bengali businessmen.[3] After independence of Bangladesh in 1971 this Bank was nationalized under Bangladesh Bank's (nationalisation) Ordinance and renamed as Pubali Bank.[3]
Subsequently, Pubali Bank was denationalized in the year 1983 as a private bank and renamed as Pubali Bank Limited.[2]
The Bank signed a ৳100 million loan agreement with Uttara Finance and Investments Limited in 2007.[4]
In 2009, Pubali Bank had reserves worth ৳88.89 billion.[5] It's non-performing loans went from 18.4 per cent in 2004 to 2.96 per cent.[5]
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.[6][7]
৳5 million went missing in the bank's branch in Chittagong in 2016 following which five employees of the bank were arrested.[8][9] Three employees of the bank in Chittagong were sent to jail for embezzling ৳128.6 million from the bank.[10] In January, Safiul Alam Khan Chowdhury was appointed managing director of Pubali Bank.[11] In May, Habibur Rahman was appointed chairman of the bank.[12] That's It Fashions Limited, a subsidiary of Ha-Meem Group, announced plans to purchase 11 million shares of Pubali Bank.[13]
