Global Bank's Board of Directors have overhauled top management, after suspending several executives as an investigation into the Bank's deposit and liquidity practices widens.

Tesfaye Boru (PhD), the Bank’s president, had delegated the Chief Corporate Banking Officer, Sahilemichael Mekonnen, to run the Bank while being abroad. However, the Board, chaired by Yoseph Getachew, later dissolved the delegation and named Sahilemichael acting President.

The shake-up followed an investigation by the National Bank of Ethiopia (NBE) into the alleged rapid withdrawal of a time deposit estimated to reach hundreds of millions of Birr, a figure that varies among insiders.

Although regulators at the NBE have taken no known action, the Board launched its own inquiry at shareholders' initiative. Its risk and compliance and audit teams have run the review, reporting the issues to the NBE, which declined to comment.

As of last week, two executives, three directors, and 13 employees in different managerial positions, including Tesfaye and a board member, had been suspended.

Board members have declined to discuss their findings.

The dispute spilt into the open on Thursday evening, when the Board summoned 50 major shareholders to the Skylight Hotel on Africa Avenue (Bole Road). Disagreement flared over the participation of Wubshet Zegeye, chief retail banking officer and a board director, among those suspended by the Board.

According to people familiar with the meeting, it was adjourned with an agenda to replace the suspended management team. According to a senior executive of the Bank, who asked not to be named, for he is not authorised to discuss the issue publicly, the divisions should never have reached this point and that the allegations were less serious than portrayed.

"They could have handled it administratively," he said.

The upheaval comes despite Global Bank (Ethiopia) posting a year of strong growth from its operation in the financial year 2024/25. By June 2025, its assets had expanded by 42pc to 34.43 billion Br, while deposits climbed by 41pc to 25.75 billion Br, the largest annual rise in the Bank's history, since 2012.

Loans and advances reached 20.38 billion Br after growing by 4.67 billion Br, while profit after tax jumped by 56pc to 756.6 million Br. Interest income increased to 4.27 billion Br from 3.11 billion Br, but interest expenses grew faster, to 2.64 billion Br from 1.63 billion Br.

Global Bank’s five-year record is otherwise one of rapid expansion, with assets up from 11.63 billion Br, deposits almost tripled from 8.7 billion Br, and paid-up capital lifted from 1.39 billion Br to five billion Br, clearing the NBE's threshold before its June 2026 deadline.