S Alam’s control is gone. The board has changed. The country’s political landscape has also transformed. But the structure of irregularities at Bangladesh Commerce Bank remains unchanged.
Documents from the bank’s own audits and Bangladesh Bank investigations show that the culture of alleged financial misconduct that developed during the S Alam Group’s control continued even after 5 August 2024 political changeover.
The documents show that even after the fall of the Awami League government, money was allegedly transferred abroad under the guise of trade with the assistance of bank officials.
An official accused of serious irregularities at another bank was given important responsibilities, and most recently, Tk4 crore was withdrawn in cash in the name of the cost of collecting deposits.
During S Alam’s control, Commerce Bank, which was facing severe liquidity pressure, took Tk100 crore as special borrowing facilities from Bangladesh Bank and placed it in another S Alam-linked bank, Union Bank.
Through such transactions, at least Tk1,192 crore of Commerce Bank’s funds became stuck in banks and financial institutions linked to the business group, ultimately benefiting S Alam, according to the documents.
Bangladesh Bank instructed the bank to take action against those involved in these transactions.
However, the opposite happened. One of the officials involved was promoted to Deputy Managing Director, and he served twice as acting managing director.
Bangladesh Bank inspectors wrote, “Those involved in these investments and those who signed the documents will be considered to have committed fraud against the bank and assisted others in causing losses to the bank. An internal investigation should be conducted, and disciplinary action should be taken against them.”
Despite the instruction, Mohammad Ziaul Karim was promoted to Deputy Managing Director of the bank from Senior Executive Vice-president.
According to Bangladesh Bank documents, Commerce Bank was facing such a liquidity crisis at the time that it was unable to pay customers even against issued cheques. Yet funds continued to be placed in S Alam-linked institutions.
On 23 October 2023, Bangladesh Bank instructed the bank’s treasury department to take a Tk100 crore repo facility. The bank placed that money as a fixed deposit with Union Bank on 25 October 2023.
Earlier, at a board meeting on 1 February 2023, Bangladesh Bank’s coordinator had expressed objections to placing deposits with First Security Islami Bank and Union Bank.
A special audit later found that despite the objections, deposits were placed with the two S Alam-linked banks.
After 5 August, Bangladesh Bank dissolved and reconstituted Commerce Bank’s board. Many senior officials fled or resigned.
However, the pattern of irregularities continued.
In July 2025, Commerce Bank’s internal audit found that $3,07,125, equivalent to around Tk3.78 crore, was sent to Dubai on behalf of TM Trading without approval from the bank’s head office.
The audit found that the seller of the goods was based in Germany, the goods were shipped from Poland, but the payment was sent to Dubai. The transaction was suspected by auditors to be a case of money laundering.
The audit identified four officials as “primarily responsible” for the transaction. One of them was Senior Executive Vice-President Md Delwar Hossain.
In April 2025, NRBC Bank informed Commerce Bank that Delwar Hossain had joined Commerce Bank without obtaining a clearance certificate from NRBC Bank and that he had been dismissed from his previous job due to irregularities.
The matter had also been reported to Bangladesh Bank.
Despite this, he continued to hold an important position at Commerce Bank and was involved in further irregularities, as revealed by the documents.
The audit also found that Commerce Bank official Muhammad Abu Taher was assigned responsibilities for the trade department, anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing department, CTPU/SWIFT and treasury department simultaneously.
This meant that responsibilities ranging from preventing suspicious transactions to transferring foreign currency were concentrated in the hands of one person, which, according to the audit, made the route for illicit transfers easier.
Earlier, despite objections from Bangladesh Bank, the bank opened a letter of credit (LC) for Deshbandhu Packaging.
In November 2023, Bangladesh Bank’s appointed coordinator objected to an import proposal worth $5,44,000 from the heavily indebted Deshbandhu Group. The board eventually withdrew the proposal.
However, the bank’s principal branch later made payments against the LC.
The latest example of continuing irregularities at the bank emerged from the “Ujjibon Deposit Campaign”.
According to a recent Bangladesh Bank inspection report, Tk4 crore was transferred to the personal accounts of 13 officials in the name of the campaign and later withdrawn in cash.
Neither the chairman nor the managing director of Commerce Bank agreed to comment on the allegations.
Although the government owns more than 50 per cent of Bangladesh Commerce Bank’s shares, effective control before 5 August remained with Mohammed Saiful Alam, chairman of S Alam Group.
Following the change in government after the July uprising, Bangladesh Bank dissolved the previous board on 3 September 2024 and formed a new five-member board.
Former Bangladesh Bank Executive Director Md Ataur Rahman was appointed chairman.
A few weeks later, on 20 October, Ziaul Karim became deputy managing director and served as acting managing director and chief executive officer for the first time until 15 January 2025.
He again served in the same role from July 2025 to March 2026.
He is currently serving as Deputy Managing Director-1 of the bank.
Since 9 April, the bank’s managing director has been former Bangladesh Bank Executive Director Md Obaidul Hoque, who previously served as head of the training institute of NRBC Bank.
