AMA Muhith.
Finance Minister AMA Muhith said on Thursday Grameen Bank must be brought under a regulatory framework since neither the central bank nor the Microcredit Regulatory Authority controls the Nobel Prize winning organisation.
“At the moment, there is no regulatory body for the Grameen Bank,” Muhith said. “It must come under the regulatory framework. It has to be either responsible to Bangladesh Bank or to the MRA.”
Speaking to journalists at his office at Bangladesh Secretariat, Muhith said that he had told the Grameen Bank Inquiry Commission to work on the issue.
The Grameen Bank Ordinance 1983 now governs the microcredit organisation, which has 84 lakh borrowers and members in the rural areas.
Muhith reiterated that the government would not change the present structure of the bank, although the commission is preparing suggestions that its legal structure is formulated in a way that gives the government at least 51 percent stake.
The government-sponsored committee would organise a workshop in Dhaka on July 2 to discuss with experts its recommendations for Grameen Bank and 48 associated organisations, all of which are legally independent companies.
Muhith said he thinks the workshop would go on as usual since the commission, not the finance ministry or the government, has arranged it.
He said: “The commission came to him for advice but I told them that I would not give them any advice as I am in the government.”
“I told them the terms of references given to the commission are good enough for you,” he said, adding that he would also attend the meeting.
The finance minister said Grameen Bank founder Prof Muhammad Yunus made “a mountain out of mole hill” about the recommendations to be made by the commission.
Source: The Daily Star
