The Bangladesh Bank’s (BB) clarification that clients will get their money back in such cases has done little to pacify the customers. The issue came to the fore against the backdrop of the central bank’s move to amend the existing “Bank Deposit Insurance Act 2000”.

According to the existing law, a depositor will get a maximum Tk 1 lakh under the insurance coverage if a bank goes bankrupt. In such case, a depositor has to submit a claim within 90 days of the bank’s collapse.

A top BB official said the central bank recently moved to amend the law to double insurance coverage which brought the whole issue into focus.

Photo:Collected

He said the issue drew extra attention as the entire banking sector has been passing through a very tough time with an increase in default loans and siphoning off thousands of crores of taka.

BB spokesman and Executive Director Sirajul Islam in a recent briefing assured depositors that they would get back their deposited money if the bank concerned collapses.

With the Tk 1 lakh coverage, 92 percent depositors would get back their money while the money of the rest 8 percent would be returned after asset and liability assessment as per the Bank Deposit Insurance Act, he said.

Referring to the Bank Company Act 1991, Sirajul said this law guarantees depositors about getting their money back. “Banks are operated under the Bank Company Act 1991 and nobody should worry about the matter,” he told UNB.

But his assurance did little to dispel confusions among depositors following the experience of the collapse of Farmers Bank three years ago. A client, who had a deposit of Tk 30 lakh with the bank, said he is yet to get his full money back.

He said when the crisis began in the bank in 2018, its officials refused to give the deposited money back, saying the bank is facing liquidity crisis.

“There was no immediate action from the Bangladesh Bank to give the depositors’ money back,” he said, adding that after a long delay, the central bank intervened and took over the bank and renamed it as Padma Bank.

“But still the crisis is not fully over and I didn’t get back my full amount of deposited money,” he told UNB, preferring anonymity. “Padma Bank is returning my money, but in phases and in small amount.”

A similar experience was shared by another depositor of now-defunct Al Baraka Bank which faced a similar problem. After a scam, Al Baraka Bank was also taken over by Bangladesh Bank after long delay and it was renamed as ICB Islamic Bank.

Many depositors are still waiting to get back their full amount.