The longest serving president of Ethiopia's Awash International Bank (AIB) has been sacked following an investigation into letter of credit (L/C) misdemeanours.

The bank's board of directors dismissed Leikun Berhanu on 31 December 2010.

Investigations

Berhanu's dismissal follows investigations that began last year into L/C misdemeanours at AIB.

In the early days of the investigations, the bank sacked 10 of its employees who were accused of receiving 10 per cent of the foreign currency that AIB made available to customers through L/Cs (DC World News, 28 September 2010).

Banking bar

Senior Ethiopian bank officials are usually provided the opportunity to resign rather than being dismissed, which allows them to seek employment in other banks.

Officials such as Berhanu who are dismissed are barred from working for other banks.

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