Bank employees facing legal proceedings prevented from advancing in career rank
In a significant move towards enhancing transparency and fairness, the Bangladeshi government has introduced the Promotion Policy 2025 for officers and employees in state-owned commercial banks, specialized banks, and financial institutions. The new policy aims to ensure merit-based career advancement while taking disciplinary issues into account.
Key elements of the policy include:
- Promotion Criteria: Eligible employees will be evaluated based on educational qualifications, service record, merit, efficiency, relevant training completion, integrity, and seniority. A seniority list is prepared and approved before promotions are considered.
- Impact of Disciplinary and Legal Cases: Employees with departmental or criminal cases, including those involving the Anti-Corruption Commission, are generally disqualified from promotion unless they have been cleared of all charges without punishment. If cleared, they may still be promoted but to reserved vacancies rather than regular ones. This ensures that unresolved or punished misconduct prevents merit advancement.
- Uniform Application Across Banks: The 2025 policy applies uniformly to employees of six state-owned commercial banks (Sonali Bank, Rupali Bank, Janata Bank, Agrani Bank, BASIC Bank, and Bangladesh Development Bank PLC) and multiple specialized banks such as Bangladesh Krishi Bank, Rajshahi Krishi Unnayan Bank, Probashi Kallyan Bank, Karmasangsthan Bank, Ansar-VDP Unnayan Bank, and Palli Sanchay Bank. This unified approach addresses previously inconsistent and unclear promotion practices.
- Scoring and Evaluation: Promotions depend on a composite scoring system taking into account merit indicators such as service record, performance, training, and integrity. The policy emphasizes transparency and standardization in scoring, though detailed numeric scoring thresholds have not been publicly disclosed.
Additional guidelines include:
- Promotions will not take effect until the promoted officer joins the new post.
- For officers on lien, the promotion will only take effect after joining the substantive post.
- If multiple candidates score equally, seniority in the feeder post will determine ranking on the merit list.
- Officers or employees receiving a minor penalty for misconduct will not be considered for promotion for one year after the penalty period ends.
- Officers or employees receiving a major penalty for misconduct will not be considered for promotion for two years after the penalty period ends.
A separate committee headed by the managing director and CEO will handle promotions to assistant general manager (AGM), while a committee chaired by the bank's board chairman will handle promotions to deputy general manager (DGM) or equivalent.
The 2025 unified promotion policy mandates that officers and employees involved in misconduct or criminal proceedings must be free of punishments to be eligible for promotion. It reflects a mix of merit and seniority factors in scoring and applies uniformly across state-owned commercial and specialized banks to provide a clear, transparent framework in Bangladesh's public banking sector.
- The promotion policy for officers and employees in Bangladesh's state-owned commercial banks, specialized banks, and financial institutions significantly emphasizes fairness in business and finance by considering various merit-based factors, such as educational qualifications, merit, efficiency, relevant training completion, integrity, and seniority, for career advancement.
- To ensure that business practices and financial decisions in Bangladesh's public banking sector are both transparent and free from any pending or resolved misconduct, the 2025 unified promotion policy disqualifies employees with departmental or criminal cases, including those involving the Anti-Corruption Commission, from being promoted unless they have been cleared of all charges without punishment.
