The Farmers Bank Limited was established in 2013 and was granted a licence due to the political links of its founder
Muhiuddin Khan Alamgir. In January 2016, Bangladesh Bank appointed an observer to The Farmers Bank Limited who had found evidence of irregularities with the distribution of 4 billion taka loans. Farmers Bank used its security deposit money with Bangladesh Bank to payback interbank short-term loans to four banks for a total of 7 billion taka in December 2017. The Bank distributed loans before their approval. The Bank sought support from Bangladesh Bank due to a liquidity crisis. Bangladesh Bank also provided it with a three months deadline to sort out the liquidity crises and asked its directors to inject cash into the Bank. Md Ehsan Khasru was appointed managing director of The Farmers Bank Limited on 5 January 2018. Minister of Finance,
Abul Maal Abdul Muhith, announced on 8 March 2018 that Investment Corporation of Bangladesh and state owned Banks will take over 60 percent of The Farmers Bank Limited. On 24 March 2018,
Bangladesh Bank disclosed that their investigation of The Farmers Bank Limited had found 5 billion taka loans were given to 11 companies violating banking rules in Bangladesh. The Central Bank blamed Muhiuddin Khan Alamgir and Mahabubul Haque Chisty, ex-chairman of The Farmers Bank Limited executive committee, over the loan embezzlements. In October 2018, Anti-Corruption Commission announced that its investigation had found involvement of two businessmen in embezzling 40 million taka from The Farmers Bank Limited. On 10 December 2019, they filed charges against 11 including former
Chief Justice of Bangladesh,
Surendra Kumar Sinha. The other two accused are Muhammad Masudur Rahman Khan, First Vice President of The Farmers Bank Limited, and Zia Uddin Ahmed, Senior Vice President of The Farmers Bank Limited. Rashedul Haque Chisty received bail from Judge KM Emrul Kayesh on two cases concerning The Farmers Bank Limited on 18 May 2020. He also received Metropolitan Magistrate Md Sarafuzzaman Ansary and Judge Al Asad Md Ashifuzzaman on cases related to The Farmers Bank Limited on 19 May 2020. Bangladesh High Court issued a stay order on his bail verdict on 28 May 2020. Mahabubul Haque Chisty was shown arrested in five cases related to the embezzlement of money from The Farmers Bank Limited. On 26 July 2018, Chisty's bail application was rejected by Bangladesh High Court. Anti-Corruption Commission filed charges against 18 individuals including the CEO of the Bank, Chowdhury Mustaque Ahmed, for embezzling 300 million taka from the Bank.
Anti-Corruption Commission sued the chairperson of
S. A. Group and six others with Gulshan Police Station over the embezzlement of loans from Farmers Bank. The Farmers Bank Limited was renamed to Padma Bank Limited in December 2019. The Bank had failed to pay back money to depositors and had to receive a bailout from the Government of Bangladesh worth 8.15 billion taka. The Bank also owes money to 18 government organizations such as the
Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission,
Bangladesh Power Development Board,
Bangladesh Climate Trust Fund,
Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation,
Chittagong Port Authority,
Jiban Bima Corporation,
Mongla Port Authority,
Petrobangla, and
Sonali Bank. Bangladesh Bank waived 890 million taka from the fine.
Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission initiated an investigation of Padma Bank Limited following allegations that the bank Chairman
Chowdhury Nafeez Sarafat had misused 1 billion taka from the bank by former bank chairperson Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir. In March 2024, The
EXIM Bank and Padma Bank signed a MoU at the
Bangladesh Bank (BB) headquarters, under which the EXIM Bank will 'take over' the Padma Bank. It is learnt that after the merger it will operate under the name
EXIM Bank. However on 24 December 2024, EXIM Bank and Padma Bank called off planned merger. == Board of directors ==