Bangladesh Bank Governor Abdur Rouf resigns
He submitted his resignation letter to the Finance Ministry at 3:00pm Friday
Bangladesh Bank Governor Abdur Rouf Talukder on Friday (9 August) resigned from his position, citing personal reasons.
He submitted his resignation letter to the Finance Ministry at 3:00pm on the day.
Talukder was the latest to join a long line of officials from government, autonomous and semi-autonomous institutions who resigned in the wake of the ouster of the Awami League-led government earlier this week.
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He was appointed the governor of the Bangladesh Bank on 11 June 2022 for a four-year term and officially took office on 12 July that year. Prior to his appointment, he served as the secretary of the Finance Division within the Ministry of Finance.
During his tenure, the governor faced significant criticism for imposing a ban on journalists' entry to the Bangladesh Bank, which led to a boycott of his events by the press. However, following a political shift, the higher authorities at the Bangladesh Bank recently lifted the ban on journalists' entry.
Earlier on Wednesday a group of Bangladesh bank officials called for the resignation of the central bank governor, four deputy governors, advisers and head of the Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit, accusing them of facilitating the plundering of the country's financial resources.
They forced a deputy governor to sign a white paper and persuaded four other top officials to resign. The senior officials said it was the first time this had happened at the central bank since a regime change.
The same day, in response to substantial criticism from officials, four deputy governors of the Bangladesh Bank agreed to step down from their positions.
Among them, only deputy governor Kazi Sayedur Rahman submitted a resignation letter to executive director-1 of the central bank while the others assured they would resign soon.
The role of Bangladesh Bank has been under scrutiny for several years due to issues such as corruption, irregularities, default loans, failure to prevent money laundering, and a dollar crisis. This year, Governor Rouf initiated a plan to merge several public and private banks, but the process has also faced criticism and questions.
