The irregularities were unearthed during a Bangladesh Bank inspection at the state bank's Asadganj branch in Chittagong between January 10 and January 13 this year.
The branch had disbursed Tk 24.76 crore as cash credit and Tk 112.07 crore to settle liabilities of letters of credit in favour of Zaynab Trading without taking adequate mortgage.
The inspection team was told that Zaynab Trading gave mortgage of 185.50 decimals of land against the loans, when in reality only 33.59 decimals were furnished. The ownership is disputed too.
The office of Zaynab Trading was supposed to be located at Khatunganj in Chittagong, but the central bank inspection team could not find it.
The inspection team's report said Hamid was directly involved in the sanctioning and disbursement of the loans.
In another violation, the Agrani MD took the decision to shift the Asadganj branch to a building owned by the managing director of Zaynab Trading.
The managing directors are not allowed to take such decisions; the responsibility is vested to the board of directors.
Hamid also rescheduled loans of Zaynab Trading going above and beyond the permissible limit.
The report recommended stern actions against Hamid for the irregularities.
Subsequently, he was slapped with the show-cause notice last week and was asked to respond to it by March 3.
After receiving the response, the central bank will take actions as per the Banking Companies Act, said Anwarul Islam, a spokesperson for the BB.
Contacted, Zaid Bakht, chairman of Agrani Bank, said the notice has not been issued to him.
“Rather, it was issued to the managing director of the bank. So, he has to explain the issue to the central bank,” he added.
Hamid remained unavailable for comment.
