Depositors of five merged banks have sieged Bangladesh Bank (BB), demanding immediate refund of all deposits including profits, by scrapping the haircut system.
On Thursday (March 5), they formed a human chain and held a rally in front of the central bank's head office in Motijheel, the capital, at around 10 am.
Later, around 12:30 pm, when the protesters tried to enter Bangladesh Bank, security personnel blocked them at the main gate. Even after this, the protesters tried to enter, but the gate was closed.
At that time, the protesters sought permission to enter through a hand microphone and announced that they would not return without meeting the governor.
The protesters temporarily moved away from the gate after the intervention of police officers, but after a while they took up positions there again. Later, the entrance gate of Bangladesh Bank was closed again and police members took up positions in front of the gate. The protesters also took up positions in front of them.
Alif Reza, the convener of the ongoing movement, said, "We are now being given only 4 percent profit after canceling the haircut. We want the full profit and we must return all our money quickly. I wanted to submit a memorandum to the governor, but it was not allowed."
Jainal Abedin, another depositor who participated in the movement, said, "I have FDR worth one crore taka. Now they want to give only four lakh taka profit, which I cannot accept. However, the bank officials are taking their salaries and bonuses."
The protesters were seen standing in front of the entrance gate of Bangladesh Bank until 2 pm.
The customers of the 'Sammilit Islami Bank', which consists of five banks - Union Bank, First Security Islami Bank, Global Islami Bank, Social Islami Bank and Exim Bank - have been protesting for a long time demanding the return of their deposits. At Thursday's program, the protesters raised various slogans demanding the cancellation of the 'haircut' decision.
Earlier, the central bank had decided not to pay any profit against deposits for the last two fiscal years, which was supposed to be implemented through the 'haircut' method. However, Bangladesh Bank later reversed that decision in the face of protests.
In this regard, Bangladesh Bank spokesperson Arif Hossain Khan told the media, “The protest of the depositors is logical. However, the reality is that Sammilit Islami Bank is currently in a liquidity crisis. If all the money is paid at once, it will be difficult for the banks to conduct operation.”
He said, “About 1.5 lakh crore taka is required to return all the deposits, but currently the bank has a capital of about Tk 35 thousand crore. The government has taken responsibility for the bank, so we request the depositors to be a little more patient to get all the money back.”
Bd-pratidin English/Lutful Hoque
