(CNN) -- It's not often that a Nobel Peace Prize laureate gets fired, but the Bangladeshi government said Wednesday it did just that in dismissing Muhammad Yunus from a top post in the pioneering bank he founded. 

Grameen Bank's general manager, however, disputed the government's claim. 

K.M. Abdul Waddod, the general manager of the Bangladesh Central Bank's regulation and policy department, said his bank, the regulatory authority in the South Asian nation, had sent for a second time a letter to the Grameen Bank chairman, urging the ouster of Yunus from his post of managing director because he was past retirement age. 

The government, which has a 25% stake in Grameen, said that by the bank's own rules, Yunus, now 70, was required to end his service when he turned 60. 

"He did not inform us he is over that age," Waddod said. "The bank did let him go." 

Muzammel Huq, the new government-appointed Grameen chairman, told CNN that he had received the letter of the central bank. 

"The central bank has removed Professor Yunus as managing director of the bank and I'll act accordingly under the bank's law," Huq said. 

He said the deputy managing director of the bank will take over until Yunus' post can be filled. 

But a Grameen Bank statement said Yunus had not been fired. 

"This is a legal issue," said the statement signed by Jannat-E-Quanine, Grameen's general manager. "Grameen Bank has been duly complying with all applicable laws. It has also complied with the law in respect of appointment of the managing director. According to the bank's legal advisers, the founder of Grameen Bank, Nobel laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus, is accordingly continuing in his office." 
Who appointed the bank's chairman?
government