Founding The Kabul Bank was established in 2004. It is connected throughout the globe with
SWIFT facility, which enables fund transfer for its customers. The bank has correspondent relationship with seven international banks situated in Germany, China,
Iran,
Tajikistan,
Saudi Arabia and
India.
Corruption scandal Kabul Bank was badly shaken in 2011, in one of "the worst banking scandals in history", according to
The Guardian newspaper. In late 2012, according to the
Los Angeles Times, independent investigators and journalists uncovered widespread corruption in Kabul Bank.
The New York Times, in 2012, headlines indicate "Audit Says Kabul Bank Began as 'Ponzi Scheme'" following investigation and judicial action in the aftermath of the Bank's crisis and scandal. In 2010, it was disclosed that its Chairman other insiders were spending the bank's US$1 billion for their own personal lavish style living and lending money under the table to family, relatives and friends. In September 2010, one of the principal owners of the bank said that depositors had withdrawn $180 million in two days and predicted a "revolution" in the country's financial system unless the Afghan government and the United States moved quickly to help stabilize the bank. On 27 December 2010, a suicide car bomber killed at least three Afghans, including one policeman, as he targeted police officers who lined up to withdraw their salaries in front of Kabul Bank in central
Kandahar; the midday explosion also wounded 16 policemen and five civilians.
2011 On 19 February 2011, at least 38 people (including 13 policemen) were killed during an insurgent raid on a branch of Kabul Bank in
Jalalabad, the provincial capital of
Nangarhar. Three suicide bombers reportedly entered the bank and detonated themselves, and fighting between insurgents and security forces continued for over four hours; President Hamid Karzai and a
NATO International Security Assistance Force spokesman condemned the attack, which was the deadliest in the country since June 2010. Two surviving attackers, including teenageer
Zar Ajam, were swiftly tried and hanged at
Pul-e-Charkhi prison in Kabul in June 2011. In its July 2011 review of the Kabul Bank scandal and aftermath, international non-governmental organization (NGO)
Transparency International raised repeated concerns about problems of
corruption in Afghanistan and its impact on the economy, business investment, security and civil society. In October, the
Washington Post reported that Mahmood Karzai could soon be indicted for tax evasion in the U.S., though he denied the charges, telling the newspaper: "I'm very clean", and insisting his only interest was "rebuilding Afghanistan." Since 2011, the Karzai Government has rejected banking oversight and reform efforts by the United States in the wake of the Kabul Bank scandal and collapse according to reports by the U.S.
Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) in 2013–14. Following the departure of Hamid Karzai in 2014,
Ashraf Ghani re-opened efforts to recover funds lost by
embezzlement,
corruption, and
fraud by the bank's insiders. Ghani vowed to seek to continue the investigation of the Kabul Bank crisis and fight
corruption in Afghanistan. In October 2014, the Ghani Administration in Kabul reportedly officially re-opened the investigation. In September 2010, the
Afghan Central Bank said it was prepared to provide loans to the Kabul Bank, "if it requests". After the bailout by the government, by 2015, authorities were inviting bids to privatize the new bank. In 2016, Afghanistan's Joint-Stock Company offered to buy New Kabul Bank for $31 million.
Pakistan's
MCB Bank also made a bid, as New Kabul Bank was to be privatized in October 2018. ==See also==