AB Bank PLC
Profile
- Total assets
- ৳409,870,000,000
- Deposits
- ৳322,920,000,000
- Gross NPL
- —
- CRAR
- — (n/a)
- Net profit
- ৳-19,060,000,000
- Chairman
- Kaiser A. Chowdhury
- MD/CEO
- Syed Mizanur Rahman
- Rating
- A-
AB Bank is Bangladesh's most distressed listed private commercial bank: classified as DSE Market Category Z (distressed), suffering a BDT 4,298 crore capital shortfall and BDT 1,906 crore net loss in FY2024. Post-forensic audit as of September 2025, approximately 84% of outstanding loans (BDT 30,138 crore of BDT 35,982 crore) were classified as non-performing. The bank received a BDT 1,500 crore emergency liquidity loan from Bangladesh Bank in November 2025 (total BB debt BDT 2,270 crore) after a deposit run drained BDT 842 crore since September 2025. Bangladesh Bank has withheld dividend approval. The AT-1 perpetual bond (ABBLPBOND) listed on DSE is the primary capital-building instrument. New MD/CEO Syed Mizanur Rahman (effective May 5, 2025) and new Chairman Kaiser A. Chowdhury (effective May 15, 2025) are leading recovery efforts.
Recent activity
- 2026-04-29 bond_issue AB Bank disclosed PSI regarding its BDT 600 crore Additional Tier-1 Perpetual Bond (ABBLPBOND; actual raise BDT 571 crore: BDT 540 crore private placement + BDT 31 crore public issue); bond is unsecured, non-cumulative, contingent-convertible, coupon rate 20-year T-bond rate + 2.0% margin (floor 6%, ceiling 10%). ↗↗
- 2026-04-30 earnings AB Bank released 44th AGM notice with audited financial statements for FY2025 and unaudited Q1 2026 results as price-sensitive disclosures; Q1 2026 basic EPS stood at -9.220 BDT per share, indicating the bank's losses continued into 2026. ↗↗
- 2026-05-17 other AB Bank held its 836th Board Meeting; PSI disclosed per DSE listing requirements. ↗
Provenance & notes
Incorporated December 31, 1981 as Arab Bangladesh Bank Limited; commenced operations April 12, 1982 as Bangladesh's first private commercial bank. Renamed AB Bank Limited on November 14, 2007; later converted to public limited company (PLC). DSE listing since 1983. Paid-up capital BDT 8,956.95 million and authorized capital BDT 15,000 million per DSE company profile (May 18, 2026). Shares outstanding: 895,694,749 at face value BDT 10. Foreign ownership: historically sizable Arab/Gulf stake (founding shareholders included Arab investors from UAE and Bahrain), but current foreign ownership percentage is not confirmed in any publicly accessible primary source as of May 2026 and is therefore left null rather than guessed. Government ownership is nil (purely private bank). FY2024 financials (total assets BDT 409,870 crore, deposits BDT 322,920 crore, loans BDT 331,850 crore, net loss BDT 1,906 crore) sourced from search-extracted summary of AB Bank 2024 Annual Report (abbl.com) and confirmed by tob.news bailout article. CAR, ROA, ROE, and npl_pct for FY2024 statutory filing not retrievable from accessible sources as of this date (PDFs binary-encoded); CAR known to be below 12.5% regulatory minimum given BDT 4,298 crore capital shortfall. NPL ratio as of September 2025 (post-forensic audit) ~84% per The Daily Star; FY2024 statutory NPL ratio not confirmed separately. Branch count of 105 (104 domestic + 1 Mumbai) per abbl.com/background/; ATM count 'over 250' per same source, entered as 250 minimum. Employee count approximately 2,300 per Wikipedia (2024) versus 2,202 per Banglapedia (2020); no precise 2024-2025 figure available in public sources. Chairman Kaiser A. Chowdhury elected at 813th board meeting on May 15, 2025 per The Daily Star and Dhaka Tribune reports. MD/CEO Syed Mizanur Rahman effective May 5, 2025 per official abbl.com press release and TBS News. Rating: ARGUS A- for 2025-26 per BB ECAI document (based on December 31, 2024 financial statements); the 2012-era CRAB AA3 displayed on abbl.com credit-rating-report page is stale (from 2011 financials). Q1 2026 EPS of -9.220 BDT per DSE (annualized: ~-36.88 BDT), consistent with continued deep losses. verification_status=partial: FY2024 CAR, ROA, ROE, official NPL ratio, and current foreign ownership pct are not confirmed from accessible primary sources.
Sources
- https://abbl.com/background/
- https://abbl.com/board-of-directors/
- https://abbl.com/senior-management-team/
- https://abbl.com/price-sensitive-information/
- https://abbl.com/syed-mizanur-rahman-appointed-as-the-managing-director-ceo-of-ab-bank/
- https://abbl.com/ab-bank-plc-elects-new-chairman/
- https://abbl.com/approval-of-ab-banks-tk-600-crore-perpetual-bond/
- https://www.dsebd.org/displayCompany.php?name=ABBANK
- https://www.thedailystar.net/business/economy/banks/news/ab-banks-hidden-bad-loans-push-npls-84-4041106
- https://tob.news/ab-bank-receives-tk1500cr-bailout/
- https://www.tbsnews.net/economy/banking/mizanur-rahman-appointed-ab-bank-md-ceo-1134351
- https://www.thedailystar.net/business/banking/news/kaiser-chowdhury-made-chairman-ab-bank-3895546
- https://en.banglapedia.org/index.php/Arab_Bangladesh_Bank_Limited
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AB_Bank
- https://www.bb.org.bd/fnansys/ecai_rating/ecai_credit_rating.pdf