75,000 depositors seek to withdraw nearly Tk 4,000cr from Sammilito Islami Bank

In the four days since the beginning of this month, around 75,000 customers have applied to withdraw their deposits from Sammilito Islami Bank.

The applicants have sought a total of Tk 3,925 crore, officials of the bank said.

Tap here to add The Daily Star as a trusted source

Sammilito Islami Bank, formed last year by merging five troubled Islamic banks, will start disbursing the money today.

The Bangladesh Bank (BB) on Sunday provided Tk 5,000 crore to facilitate payments to customers of the five banks -- First Security Islami Bank, Global Islami Bank, Social Islami Bank, Union Bank and EXIM Bank.

Applications for withdrawal of funds began on September 1.

The central bank has been providing liquidity support to the newly formed bank to enable it to meet customers' withdrawal demands and resume normal banking operations.

The payment initiative is aimed at restoring confidence among depositors of the merged banks, which had faced severe liquidity and governance problems.

The central bank has announced a scheme to repay the entire amount to depositors in phases.

On August 25, the BB announced that there would be no "haircut" on the deposits of customers of Sammilito Islami Bank.

At the same time, it announced that individual depositors would be allowed to withdraw the principal amount of their deposits according to their needs from September 1.

Following the announcement, Sammilito Islami Bank began accepting applications from customers and continued the process until Sunday.

According to bank officials, applications for deposit repayment were accepted in accordance with the prescribed rules. Customers were required to visit their respective branches or sub-branches to submit their applications.

Officials said they would verify the applications before handing over the money to depositors and paying the amounts due to them.