The bank was incorporated on 26 June 1983. The government owns shares in the bank. The bank was listed in the
Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) by 1986 and
Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE) by 1995. On 8 April 1993, Humayun Zahir, the first chairman of the United Commercial Bank was murdered following a dispute with other bank directors.
Akhtaruzzaman Chowdhury Babu, director of UCB was suspected for the murder. On 26 August 1999, Akhtaruzzaman forcefully seized control of UCBL's board of directors during a meeting with his son,
Saifuzzaman Chowdhury by gunpoint with 40 armed men. Again another chairman, Zafar Ahmed Chowdhury was forced to resign. In 2010, Akhtaruzzaman became a director. Between 2007 and 2012, four officials of the bank stole 100 million taka from the bank using forged credit cards until they were detected in May 2012. In 2012, the Anti-Corruption Commission sued six for embezzling 129 million BDT from UCB. In March 2016, a Chittagong Court sentenced an official of UCB to jail for allegedly helping a businessman secure 181.8 million BDT loan against a property, which was already mortgaged to
Bangladesh Krishi Bank, through fraud and then laundering the money outside of
Bangladesh. In September 2017, United Commercial Bank provided loan waiver to Russel Vegetable Oils Limited, a company linked to bank director, Sultana Hashem, wife to
M. A. Hashem, chairman of
Partex Group. The loan waiver violated banking rules of Bangladesh. In 2013,
M. A. Hashem was re-elected chairman of UCB. In September,
Bangladesh Bank asked UCB to provide clarifications regarding their suspected profiting from selling dollars at inflated prices during the
foreign exchange market crisis. Later the complaint has been resolved, resulting in the bank being mandated to allocate 50% of its profit from dollar trading to its
corporate social responsibility (CSR) funds, while the remaining 50% can be retained as income. In July, MNH Bulu, A Bangladeshi businessman filed a lawsuit against UCB seeking BDT 400 million in damages for alleged defamation caused by false charges. In May 2023, according to a report prepared in accordance with
International Accounting Standard (IAS)-34, UCB disclosed a decline in its
operating profit along with an increase in
operating expenses. In 2024, Sharif Zahir become the chairman of the Bank who said he was removed from the bank forcefully with the knowledge of Prime Minister
Sheikh Hasina. == Operations ==