Sonali Bank to inject Tk 70b into cash-strapped lender

State-owned Sonali Bank comes to the aid of private-sector National Bank again with Tk 70 billion under regulatory guarantee to facilitate the cash-strapped lender’s recovery process.

Under the guarantee of Bangladesh Bank (BB) aimed at strengthening stability in the banking sector, the country’s largest commercial lender took the decision of providing the placement support on Tuesday.

The move comes after the banking regulator advised the public bank rolling in liquidity to extend the guarantee-backed placement support to National Bank PLC so that it can resume full banking services allowing customers to withdraw money according to their needs from all its branches and ATM booths across the country from October 15 next.

Confirming the development, Sonali Bank Managing Director Md. Shawkat Ali Khan said the three-month fund placement is expected to help National Bank meet its immediate liquidity requirements and facilitate its financial-recovery process.

“The placement fund at a rate of 10 per cent is fully protected by a guarantee. If National Bank fails to pay back, the central bank will pay. So, there is nothing to be worried about,” he said.

As a leading state-owned bank, he said, they decided to support the central bank efforts to ensure stability in the financial sector.

Sonali Bank had previously extended liquidity support of Tk 30 billion to different banks, including the National Bank, through fund placements against Bangladesh Bank guarantees. The bank said the funds placed in such cases were repaid within the stipulated time.

Seeking anonymity, a BB official said the BB governor in a recent meeting with the high-ups of National Bank instructed them to resume its full banking services by way of repaying money to the depositors according to their needs.

Considering financial supports required to meet the depositors’ demand, he said, the regulator advised the Sonali Bank authorities to facilitate the National Bank with such funding support like in the past.

Under the placement arrangement, the National Bank will get the funds at a rate of 10 per cent and the tenure of repayment is three months. But the National Bank can extend the timeframe to another three months. On failure, the guarantor (BB) will repay.

Contacted, Chairman of National Bank Prof Dr Melita Mehjabeen said they were working hard in preparation to refund to the depositors as part of its initiative to resume full banking operations from October 15.

She said they have been receiving applications from the depositors who want to withdraw their deposits from 285 branches across the country. “Until October 12, we had received some 4500 applications. We’re now calculating funds required to settle these,” she said.

Following assurance of the banking regulator of supporting the bank’s revival process, Dr Mehjabeen said, the present board members of the bank chalked out a plan to bring back people’s trust upon the first- generation bank.

“We have already sent text message to 1.25 million customers to update their KYC and information. We also set up a hotline number for any information,” she added.

The financial conditions of the National Bank kept deteriorating over the recent years due to large-scale loan-related regularities which balloon the ratio of non-performing loans to 65.74 per cent while provisioning shortfall enhanced to Tk 233.26 billion by end of June last.

As a matter of fact, the bank sank deeper into losses in first half of this year having posted a consolidated loss per share (EPS) of Tk 7.10 for January-June 2026, compared with a loss of Tk 3.06 (restated) in the same period a year earlier.

The net asset value (NAV) per share fell to negative Tk 14.49 as of June 30, 2026, from negative Tk 1.91 a year earlier.

Source: The Business Standard