Bangladesh Bank has taken the initiative to merge five banks to form a single bank. At a time when Social Islami Bank is facing a challenge, nine shareholders of the bank have demanded that it be excluded from the process. Nine shareholders, including the bank's former chairman and current director Md. Rezaul Haque, sent a letter to the Bangladesh Bank Governor and Finance Secretary on Tuesday.

The banks in the merger process are First Security Islami Bank, Union Bank, Global Islami Bank, Social Islami Bank and Exim Bank.

The letter sent to the Governor of Bangladesh Bank said, "Most of us entrepreneurs were involved in the management of the bank from its establishment in 1995 until 2017. Then the bank was taken over by the S Alam Industrial Group, a friend of the fugitive fascist Sheikh Hasina, using state intelligence agencies. This bank was established in 1995 and at that time a significant number of foreign investors were involved in it."

It says that from 2017 to 2024, S Alam Gong was removed from this bank anonymously and in the name of a benami company without any collateral by providing loans worth thousands of crores of taka and was smuggled abroad. During that time, Bangladesh Bank did not just play the role of a silent spectator in the looting and irregularities, but rather played the role of a facilitator.

The letter said, "After the fall of Sheikh Hasina's government, there was a change in the board of directors of this bank. But we were very surprised to note that despite the qualifications of some entrepreneurial shareholders to become directors, a new board of directors was formed consisting of only one entrepreneurial director and four independent directors, which was a completely ineffective decision to pull up the fragile financial condition of the bank. Now the process of merging this bank has started without any discussion with the real entrepreneurs and shareholders. We believe that this is a very unfair, unethical and illegal process. As a result of such a step, the trust of countless customers in the bank has further plummeted."

They further said, 'We believe that if the responsibility of managing the bank is entrusted to real entrepreneurs and its shareholders, customer confidence will return very soon with the overall support of Bangladesh Bank. The bank will overcome its financial difficulties and turn around and become a commercially profitable and successful bank again.'