NCBs to sign vendor deals with govt to complete corporatisation process

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FE Report
Three nationalised commercial banks (NCBs) are going to sign vendor agreements with the government shortly to complete their ongoing corporatisation process.
The Ministry of Finance (MoF) has already sent the copies of draft vendor agreement to the three NCBs - Sonali, Janata and Agrani -for taking necessary measures, official sources said.
The Agrani Bank sent Monday the approved copy of the vendor agreement to the MoF for its consideration.
The Sonali Bank also approved the draft vendor agreement, but it is yet to send it to the ministry.
"We are now working on the issue to sign vendor agreement with the government shortly," a senior official of the Sonali Bank told the FE Monday.
The NCBs will transfer all of their existing liabilities and assets to the newly formed public limited companies through signing such vendor agreements with the government.
Sources, however, said the other NCB - Janata Bank - is preparing to sign the vendor agreement with the government in line with the ministry's directives.
The Bangladesh Bank (BB) earlier issued licences to the three NCBs allowing them to operate as public limited companies (PLCs).
Besides, the central bank asked the NCBs to submit the copies of their respective vendor agreements along with the list of their all branches to materialise the ongoing corporatisation process.
The NCBs have already submitted the list of branches to the central bank.
Currently, the Sonali bank is operating business through 1180 branches while the Janata and the Agrani have 848 branches and 866 branches respectively.
The government is likely to issue a gazette notification after completion of all process relating to corporatisation of the NCBs.