Union Bank (Bangladesh)

Union Bank PLC is a fourth-generation private Islamic bank in Bangladesh, listed on the Dhaka Stock Exchange. ¹ It was established on 7 March 2013 as a sharia-compliant bank. ¹

In January 2017 Islami Bank Bangladesh appointed Union Bank's former managing director as its own, at a time when companies aligned with S. Alam Group were buying stakes in it; Union Bank's chairman was then a director of the group and the brother of its chairman. ¹

In September 2021 the securities regulator approved its IPO, the largest for the country's banking sector. ¹ That month a central-bank inspection found it had overstated the cash in its Gulshan branch vault by about 190 million taka; a deputy managing director said the money had been given to a "VIP client" after hours, and the bank suspended three officials. ¹ In June 2022, according to Prothom Alo, a central-bank investigation found that most of its loans had gone to some 300 companies existing only on paper. ¹

Its revised 2023 report showed a loss of 2.92 billion taka instead of the profit declared earlier, the cash dividend was cancelled, and management said the previous administration had not provided accurate information. ¹ The central bank found its non-performing loans had reached about 87% by 2024; it is under central-bank supervision and part of a merger process with other Islamic banks. ¹

• English Wikipedia, "Union Bank (Bangladesh)", revision 1369334151. ¹