The proposed Peoples Bank's three-year efforts to roll out banking operations went in vain as it has failed to meet requirements needed to secure the final approval from the Bangladesh Bank.

It even took popular Cricketer Shakib Al Hasan on board as a shareholder to strengthen its efforts to secure the nod from the central bank, but the attempts proved to be futile.

The planned bank was scheduled to set up a company and manage the required paid-up capital by December 31 last year, but it failed to do so.

So, the central bank yesterday declined to give the approval to the lender to start its operation, said Md Serajul Islam, a spokesperson and executive director of the BB.

"The proposed lender has failed to fulfil the requirements, so there is no scope for us to provide approval," he said.

Along with Shakib, Abul Kashem, chairman of the proposed bank, met with BB Governor Fazle Kabir on December 21 seeking extension of the deadline to open the company.

The proposed bank submitted a shareholders' list consisting 23 persons, but it was not enough to manage the approval, Islam said.

The central bank had earlier extended the deadline three times for Peoples Bank to complete procedures.

As per rules, a proposed bank has to manage a paid-up capital to the tune of Tk 500 crore and open a company by obtaining a licence from the Registrar of Joint Stock Companies and Firms.

Shakib had provided Tk 40 crore to get the directorship, according to Kashem. The cricketer's mother Shirin Akhter is also included in the shareholders' list.

The sponsors of the proposed lender will have to submit application afresh if they want to open a new bank, said a BB official.

"This means the chapter of Peoples Bank is closed for now."

The central bank provided letters of intent to three banks in February 2019. Of them, Bengal Commercial Bank has already started its operation, while Citizen Bank has managed permission from the BB.

In its probe earlier, the BB found inconsistency in the sources of capital provided by the shareholders of Peoples Bank. So, the BB had stalled the process to provide the licence.

In Bangladesh, there are 61 banks.