This time, the private National Bank, which is facing various crises, is merging with United Commercial Bank PLC (UCB). This decision was taken in a meeting held at Bangladesh Bank on Tuesday.

According to related sources of Bangladesh Bank, Governor Abdur Rauf Talukder called a director and managing director of UCB Bank today. In the meeting, initiatives were taken to merge the authorities of UCB. No one from National Bank was present in the meeting at that time.

Although the board of National Bank is ambivalent about the merger, the government wants to merge it. Neither side has agreed to officially comment on the matter.

In this regard, it has been decided to merge 10 public and private banks in the last one month. Earlier on Monday, it was decided to merge the government-owned Basic Bank with the private City Bank. On that day, Governor Abdur Rauf Talukdar called the Chairman and MD of City Bank and informed about this decision.

No representative of Basic Bank was present in that meeting either. Even today there was no representative of the National Bank in the meeting held regarding the merger of the National Bank. Those concerned said that the governor is taking these decisions alone.

Earlier it was decided to merge two government banks. These are – Bangladesh Development Bank (BDBL) and Rajshahi Agricultural Development Bank (RAKAB). BDBL is merging with Sonali Bank. And Rakab is joining with Bangladesh Agricultural Bank. Bangladesh Bank informs the concerned banks about the decision to merge.

It was announced that Padma Bank (formerly Farmers Bank), which was in crisis due to irregularities and fraud, will be merged with Shariah-based private Exim Bank. It is the first decision to integrate. To advance this process, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between these two private sector banks on March 25. After Padma Bank, the government has taken the initiative to merge two public sector banks. In this case, an initiative was taken to merge the two weak government banks with the other two government-owned banks.