Grameen Bank businesses face investigation

Dhaka: Bangladesh has constituted a commission to review Grameen Bank operations and recommend its future role a year after its founder Nobel Laureate Professor Mohammad Younus resigned from the pioneering micro lending agency following a protracted dispute with the government.

"The commission will identify the institutional strength, weakness and constraints of the Grameen Bank... It will recommend measures for ensuring good governance in the bank, especially with a focus on accountability of management and transparency of operations," a government notification said.

The Finance Ministry notification said the four-member commission would review the entire operation of Grameen Bank and 54 social businesses linked to the pioneering microlender and look into the "purposes, legal status and operations" of Grameen Bank founded nearly three decades ago.

"The commission will review and recommend the regulatory institution and mechanism of Grameen Bank as to how to bring the bank under the purview of state regulatory agencies," it said.

US position

The development came a week after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during her two-day Dhaka visit said the US government would not endorse any government action to undermine the achievements of Grameen Bank, which also won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 along with its founder for success in fighting poverty.

"I can only hope that nothing is done that in any way undermines the success of what Grameen Bank has accomplished on behalf of many millions of poor women," Clinton said at a dialogue with Bangladesh's youth leadership last week.

Finance Minister A.M.A. Muhith recently said the reconstituted governing board of the Grameen Bank did not authorise most of the affiliates or businesses.