Dhaka: Sonali Bank has been on the top of the list of complaints that clients lodged with Bangladesh Bank against different banks in the last fiscal year, 2015-16.

The central bank received highest 563 complaints from customers against the state-owned bank while Brac Bank is in the 2nd place with 373 complaints.

This was revealed in a report prepared by Bangladesh Bank's Financial Integrity and Customer Services Department (FICSD).

The other banks in the top-10 list are Agarani Bank (291), Islami Bank (268), Janata Bank (231), Dutch-Bangla Bank (208), Bangladesh Krishi Bank (184), Pubali Bank (132), Rupali Bank (131) and Eastern Bank (126).

Bangladesh Bank received a total of 4,530 complaints from the clients of all the 59 commercial banks, including six state-owned, five specialised public, 39 private and nine foreign banks, operating in the country in one year from July 2015 to June 2016.

These complaints were received through hotline call centres, postal mails, emails, fax, and social media page like facebook. The central bank, however, attended and settled all the complaints except those pending with courts.  

Unveiling the report at a function at the central bank's conference room on Tuesday, Bangladesh Bank governor Dr Fazle Kabir said banks must improve their services to create a good environment where people would keep trust in them.

Referring to an international agency's report on "ease doing business" where Bangladesh stands at 176 out of 180 countries, he said improvement of the doing business situation heavily depends on the improvement of the banking services.

The function was also addressed by deputy governor Abu Hena Mohammad Razee Hassan, Association of Bankers, Bangladesh (ABB) president Anis A Khan and Consumers Association of Bangladesh (CAB) president Golam Rahman.

Three clients of banks also narrated their sufferings with banks and ending of harassment by the intervention of the central bank.   

The report says that most of the complaints were received against the private commercial banks which shared 58.70 percent while state-owned banks 28.28 percent, foreign banks 4.06 percent, specialised banks 4.66 and other non-scheduled banks 3.93 percent.

Of the complaints, 1116 were normal banking-related while 358 loan and advance-related, 147 card related, 127 remittance related, 58 mobile bank related, 31 trade bill related, four bank guarantee related and the remaining 543 were other business related complaints.