A promise of 1,100 taka per lakh, and an agent gone with over a crore

An agent banking outlet of a private bank at Dampara bazaar in Nikli upazila, Kishoreganj, was run by a ward member of the local union council. Being an elected representative, he was trusted: people put fixed deposits in on the bank's own cash memos and were paid 1,100 taka per lakh, or 11 per cent, which came through mobile banking for six or seven months. The payments stopped in December, and in the first week of February 2024 he left with his family; the outlet was padlocked from 2 February. By the customers' count he took more than a crore taka from over a hundred depositors - one had 2.8 lakh in, another 10 lakh, another 10.5 lakh, another 6 lakh. He had kept many customers' receipts on the pretext of reconciling the accounts, and in some cases never issued one. The bank suspended the outlet and formed an investigation committee once complaints came in, and the initial inquiry found the embezzlement substantiated.