The government will assess performance of state-owned banks and financial institutions every three months to make their boards more accountable.
"So far their activities have not been accountable. Now they will have to be so," Banking Division Secretary M Aslam Alam told reporters after a meeting at the secretariat in Dhaka yesterday.
He also said the finance ministry would sit with the state-run banks and financial institutions every two months to discuss administrative issues.
Alam yesterday met with managing directors of Sonali, Agrani, Janata, Rupali, BASIC and Bangladesh Development Bank Ltd.
Representatives from Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission and the Insurance Development and Regulatory Authority were also present.  
The move came after a number of scams in state-run banks such as Sonali and BASIC in recent years. The financial irregularities have put the role of boards of the scam-hit banks under question.
The state-owned commercial banks were corporatised in 2008. "We had thought they would function well if they are allowed to work independently," Alam said.
"But their condition did not improve, rather deteriorated further. The decision to make the financial institutions more accountable has been taken from the recent experiences," he said.
He said the central bank oversees the banks and financial institutions but does not go deeper into their affairs.