Al-Arafah Islami Bank gets 14 new directors as sponsor-backed board returns

Bangladesh Bank has appointed 14 new directors to the board of Al-Arafah Islami Bank, paving the way for the lender's founding shareholders to regain control after nearly a year under a board dominated by independent directors.

The appointments, made today (15 July), expand the bank's board from five to 19 members. The board had been operating with five independent directors since August 2024, following the political transition and regulatory intervention in several banks.

Bangladesh Bank Executive Director and spokesperson Arif Hossain Khan said the central bank had dissolved the boards of 16 banks. He said Al-Arafah Islami Bank's financial condition had improved, prompting the regulator to hand management back to its sponsor directors.

"In other banks where boards were dissolved, many sponsor directors could not be located. Al-Arafah's situation is different, so its board has been returned to the sponsors," he told reporters.

The newly appointed directors include KDS Group Chairman Khalilur Rahman, Mahbub Ahmed, representative director of KDS Garments, and Farid Uddin Ahmed, representative director of KDS Textiles.

The other appointees are former Al-Arafah Islami Bank Chairman Badiur Rahman, Enayet Ullah, who contested the last parliamentary election from Dhaka-7 as a Jamaat candidate, Selim Rahman, Ahamedul Haque, Rafiqul Islam, Imadur Rahman, Nazmul Ahsan Khaled, Anwar Hossain, Abdus Salam, Liaquat Ali Chowdhury, and Sharif Uddin Taslim, representative director of KY Steel Mills.

During the Awami League government's tenure, the bank was chaired by Abdus Samad Labu, brother of S Alam Group Chairman Saiful Alam.

Following the fall of the Awami League government in August 2024, Bangladesh Bank dissolved Al-Arafah Islami Bank's board and appointed Khwaja Shahriar as an independent director and chairman. The other independent directors were Md Shaheen Ul Islam, Md Abdul Wadud, M Abu Yusuf, and Mohammad Ashraful Hasan.