AB Bank has sought Tk 2,000 crore of liquidity support from the Bangladesh Bank to continue smooth operations.
The bank made the request in a letter to the central bank on November 11.
Syed Mizanur Rahman, managing director and chief executive officer of AB Bank, confirmed the request, stating that the bank faced deposit withdrawal pressure amid growing public concern over the banking sector鈥檚 health.
He explained that discussions about merging five banks and the central bank鈥檚 asset quality review of 11 more banks, including AB Bank, had spread panic among depositors.
Despite the central bank governor鈥檚 assurance that no more banks would be merged at this time, Mizanur said that depositors remained worried.
He noted that customers who could not access their funds after the merger of five Shariah banks had created concerns about other banks鈥� stability.
Many worry AB Bank might end up like those five crisis-hit banks, where depositors still struggle to withdraw their money, prompting customers to withdraw their money.
BB officials said that the central bank in principal decided not to provide any more liquidity support to any bank considering inflationary pressure.
Earlier, the BB pumped Tk 35,000 crore of liquidity support into nine struggling commercial banks, including AB Bank, but saw little turnaround, they said.
Non-performing loans of AB Bank jumped to Tk 22,279 crore at the end of 2024, which was 67 per cent of the bank鈥檚 total loans and advances, according to annual of report for 2024.
The bank reported Tk 3,113 crore net loss in January-September 2025 against Tk 1.58 crore of profit in the same period last year.
AB Bank said that profit had been decreased due to decrease of interest income and non-interest income. Interest income decreased because of increased non-performing loans and interest expense.
It accounted Tk 1,905 crore losses in 2024 against Tk 89.37 crore net profits in 2023.
Therefore, the board of directors of the bank recommended no dividend for the year ended December 31, 2024, after five years of the continuously providing dividends.
On March 12, 2025, the BB reconstituted board of AB Bank to strengthen governance, monitoring and curb irregularities.