Ahsan Habib

Many entrepreneurs are interested in making their projects greener, thanks to higher sustainable financing from both banks and non-bank financial institutions year after year.

Tanvir Islam, a banker, has invested Tk 17 lakh in the stock market since he started trading on the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) a decade ago.  

The Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC) is finalising a draft of rules regarding the commodity exchange on availing opinions from stakeholders with hopes that the first-ever exchange can be launched within a couple of months. 

Only two years ago, Bangladesh's stock market was termed 'hidden gem.'

Investors are hardly showing any interest to buy stocks of banks mainly due to the sector’s key indicators portraying a gloomy outlook. 

The outflow of migrant workers from Bangladesh to Saudi Arabia surged around four times in the last three years but remittance earnings from the country have kept falling, official figures showed.  

Bangladesh’s financial sector is struggling to win back people’s trust mainly due to the deterioration of some key indicators amid a lack of good governance, irregularities and lighter punishment for wrongdoers, according to analysts. 

Nearly half of non-bank financial institutions (NBFIs) saw a third of their loans turn into non-performing ones at the end of March 2023, which gives an indication of the tough times the sector was going through mainly due to massive irregularities in 8 to 10 companies. 

Although most non-bank financial institutions (NBFIs) in Bangladesh are struggling with a high rate of non-performing loans (NPLs), some of them are bucking the trend by maintaining a lower ratio.

All of the listed non-bank financial institutions (NBFIs) in Bangladesh that published their financial reports for the January-June period of the current calendar year reported lower earnings due to reduced interest income, among other reasons.

Seven months have passed since the world bid adieu to 2022, but almost half of the listed non-bank financial institutions (NBFIs) in Bangladesh have not published their financial statements for the year, breaching securities rules. 

Microfinance institutions (MFIs) in Bangladesh witnessed an 85 percent year-on-year jump in non-performing loans in 2021-22 as borrowers struggled to pay back owing to the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic and the economic slowdown, official figures showed.  

Nine foreign banks operating in Bangladesh hardly invest in the stock market owing largely to irregularities, speculation-driven investments and an inadequate number of well-performing companies that have gone public.  

Deposit growth of shariah-based banks in Bangladesh plunged in 2022 mainly due to lower confidence among savers after a number of scams in the sector were unearthed by the central bank.

The stock market of Bangladesh has been going through a bad patch for a year due to the presence of floor price, with political and macroeconomic uncertainties worsening the situation. 

Bangladesh’s economy has been growing at a striking rate in the last one decade on the back of low-paid workers in the manufacturing and service sectors but innovation has played insignificant role behind the development journey.

The combined profits of 35 listed banks in Bangladesh dropped 9 percent year-on-year to Tk 4,160 crore during the first half of 2023 as volatility in the country’s foreign exchange market has curbed their commissions from forex dealings.

Banks’ investments of more than Tk 16,000 crore have remained almost stuck in the stock market for the last one year owing to a thin presence of buyers amid the floor price, which has hit lenders’ bottom line and brought down their liquid assets.

Claim settlement in the insurance sector in Bangladesh stood at 67 percent in 2022, highlighting bad investments and non-compliance that prevented insurers from attaining a higher ratio, data from the regulator showed.

Bangladesh’s life insurance sector has always struggled in claim settlement, but the sector still has some good companies who are bearing the torch for all with faster fund repayment and good corporate governance.