Government Directs BML Towards EGM, Seeks Board Member Appointments

Bank of Maldives (BML), at the direction of the Ministry of Finance, will hold an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) in September to appoint members to its board of directors. This follows allegations of an ‘attempted coup’ levelled at the Bank, and specifically at some of its current board directors, by senior administration officials.

BML has now scheduled an EGM for 21 September after a request from the Ministry last Saturday, the bank confirmed.

The meeting will serve only to elect members to the Board of Directors — no other agenda items were filed.

The Board consists of seven directors appointed by the government, three directors appointed by ordinary shareholders and one independent director who is nominated by the government. Currently there are eight members on the board.

Meanwhile, the Mohamed Muizzu administration accused BML’s severe restrictions on dollar support to Rufiyaa (MVR) accounts—announced and reversed within hours on Sunday—as part of a long planned coup. Another component of the planned coup was for the opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP), at a press conference on the current financial situation and on social media, calling for the overthrow of the government, senior administration officials alleged.

President Muizzu himself, on Monday night, reaffirmed allegations of an attempted coup in reference to BML’s Sunday action.

“What was done, anyone with common sense would know that all these dots are connected, what was done is, just as Shiyam [Minister of Fisheries and Ocean Resources] also pointed out, an attempted coup, by those who did what they did [on Sunday],” he said, while levelling heavy criticism at BML.

While no arrests have yet been made, nor anyone questioned, the Maldives Police Service are currently investigating the alleged coup attempt by the majority state-owned bank.

“Once I found out that the decision announced yesterday [Sunday] was going to be issued, I personally was working hard, along with the relevant ministers, [to prevent the action] but they did not heed anything I had said,” Muizzu said on Monday.