Sonali Bank Officials Took Tk 1.16 Billion In Excess Bonuses; Ordered To Return

⚠ Sonali Bank officials and employees were given five incentive bonuses for their performance in 2023, even though the government's policy allowed no more than three bonuses per year. The two additional bonuses, amounting to approximately Tk 1.16 billion, were approved under pressure from employees who confined the bank's then managing director — and despite the excess being flagged in audit objections and not approved by Bangladesh Bank, the money has not been recovered even after a year and a half.

📊 Two days after the fall of the Awami League government on 5 August 2024, a group of Sonali Bank officials and employees confined the bank's then managing director (MD) and chief executive officer (CEO), Afzal Karim, on 7 August. Their demand was that they be given five incentive bonuses a year. However, under directives issued by the Financial Institutions Division of the Ministry of Finance, no more than three bonuses could be paid. As protests over the bonuses continued, the bank's then chairman, Ziaul Hasan Siddiqui, was eventually forced to resign on 20 August. Before that, the board of directors led by him had approved five incentive bonuses, in violation of the policy, under pressure from the employees.

💰 Tk 1.16 Billion: The Numbers

According to Sonali Bank sources, around 21,500 officials and employees received the bonuses. In addition to the regular three bonuses, they also received two additional incentive bonuses. Each bonus was essentially equivalent to one month's basic salary. A senior bank official said one bonus amounted to around Tk 600 million. On that basis, the two additional bonuses amounted to around Tk 1.16 billion.

• 💰 Excess bonus amount: Tk 1.16 billion (Tk 116 crore)
• 👥 Employees who received excess: ~21,500
• 📊 Bonuses paid: 5 (policy allows maximum 3)
• 📊 Excess bonuses: 2
• 💰 Each bonus value: ~Tk 600 million
• 💰 Total bonuses paid (5): Tk 2.9 billion
• 💰 2024 bonus provision: Tk 4 billion
• 📅 Recovery order issued: March 27, 2025
• 📅 Most recent letter: September 11, 2026
• 📅 Time elapsed without recovery: 18 months

📜 Recovery Efforts: 18 Months Of Inaction

During the interim government's tenure, the Financial Institutions Division wrote to Sonali Bank's MD on 27 March 2025, ordering the recovery of the money paid as the two additional bonuses in violation of the policy. But even after a year and a half, the bank authorities have not taken steps to recover the money from the officials and employees and deposit it in the state treasury. Most recently, on 11 September, the Financial Institutions Division sent another letter to Sonali Bank's MD, stating that the division did not agree to the payment of five incentive bonuses for the bank's 2023 performance.

The same letter instructed the bank to recover the money paid as the two additional bonuses in violation of the policy and adjust the amount accordingly. After paying the bonuses, Sonali Bank applied to the Financial Institutions Division for approval and also sought forgiveness for violating the policy. However, the division did not move to approve the five bonuses by violating its own policy.

🏛 Bangladesh Bank Inspection Report

Bangladesh Bank prepared an inspection report on the matter based on the situation at Sonali Bank as of 31 December 2024. Subsequently, in a letter to Sonali Bank's MD on 11 March 2025, Bangladesh Bank said the bank had paid Tk 2.9 billion in five incentive bonuses for 2023 and had set aside Tk 4 billion for bonuses for 2024. The central bank also said that even under Sonali Bank's own policy on incentive bonuses, no more than three bonuses could be paid. Nevertheless, at the bank's 870th board meeting, held on 8 August 2024, a proposal to pay five bonuses was approved.

An analysis of the letter shows that the approval was conditional. It stated that if any audit objection or objection from the Financial Institutions Division arose in the future, everyone would be obliged to return the excess money and provide a personal undertaking to that effect. The conditional approval — with explicit personal undertaking requirements — provides a clear legal basis for recovery. The failure to enforce this provision reflects the broader governance challenges in Bangladesh's state-owned banking sector.

📜 Sonali Bank MD's Response

Sonali Bank MD and CEO Shawkat Ali Khan told Prothom Alo: "The decision to give five bonuses was taken before I joined the bank. Since the money has already been paid, we have requested the government to accept it in some way or another. We will make the same request again." The MD's response — essentially asking the government to retroactively legalise the excess payments rather than recovering them — reflects the practical difficulty of recovering money that has already been distributed to 21,500 employees.

A bank director, however, said that the bank was now in a difficult position because a section of employees had used "mob pressure" to secure the bonuses. There would be no immediate solution without high-level political intervention, he said. At the same time, once the money has reached employees' pockets, there is little practical prospect of recovering it. The director's candid assessment — that recovery is practically impossible without political intervention — underscores the structural governance failure that allowed the excess payments in the first place.

🌏 New Bonus Policy: 5 Performance Indicators

Sonali Bank was not the only institution where there was a widespread practice of paying incentive bonuses to officials and employees. Similar practices existed at other government-owned banks as well. For this reason, the Financial Institutions Division issued a new guideline on 25 September 2025. Under the new guideline, bonuses will be determined based on five performance indicators — replacing the previous system where bonus decisions were effectively driven by employee pressure rather than performance metrics. The new policy represents a structural reform designed to prevent the recurrence of the kind of excess that Sonali Bank's 2023 bonus payment represents.

For Bangladesh's broader state-owned banking sector reform agenda, the Sonali Bank bonus scandal illustrates the governance challenges that continue to undermine the sector's financial health. With NPLs exceeding Tk 6 lakh crore across the banking system and 21 banks facing capital shortfalls of nearly Tk 3 lakh crore, the Tk 1.16 billion excess bonus payment at a single state-owned bank adds to the catalogue of governance failures that have eroded public confidence in the banking system. The coming months will reveal whether the government can enforce the recovery order — or whether the excess bonuses become another entry in the long list of governance failures that have gone unpunished in Bangladesh's banking sector.