Mamun Rashid

We must learn to protect ourselves from scams.

When the numbers turn red, you feel it before you see it. The office grows quieter. Conversations stop when you walk by.

Thanks to Bangladesh Bank, especially Governor Mansur, I was invited to join the large loan restructuring scrutiny committee set up by the central bank in collaboration with the finance ministry and the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI). Several departments of the central bank also took part regularly.

The financial services industry stands at a decisive moment.

Bangladesh has a money problem. Not the kind where the government cannot pay its bills, but the kind where there is simply not enough capital flowing into the country to fuel real growth.

Future CEOs should combine financial prudence with tech and data

My first real exposure to credit came when I joined ANZ Grindlays corporate banking in the early nineties. Later, as head of restructuring and recovery at Standard Chartered during the Asian financial crisis, I faced the reality of what happens when loans turn sour.

In today’s fast-changing environment, internal audit is no longer a back office function. It is central to how organisations manage risk, protect value and sustain growth.

When we hear the word engineering, Germany naturally comes to mind. Mention technology, and Japan emerges. Talk about innovation and Silicon Valley in the United States takes centre stage.

A half-built flyover cuts across the sky in Dhaka, its concrete pillars reaching upward with an unfinished span. It was meant to connect, to ease traffic, move people, and signal progress.

BB must change its identity from an enforcer to an ecosystem architect.

With nudges from the International Monetary Fund and backing from the World Bank and Asian Development Bank, Bangladesh has embarked on a long-overdue three-year reform plan for its ailing banking sector.

With support from the World Bank and more importantly the IMF, the Bangladesh Bank (BB) has largely improved its policy analysis capability. The regulator has been announcing the half-yearly monetary policy statement (MPS) since 2007.

The pricing issues caused by new trade restrictions are raising growing concern across Bangladesh’s export sector. And this concern comes not from problems within the country, but from sudden changes in the international trade system.

Why do people offer bribes in the first place?

The stability of Bangladesh’s banking sector is under serious threat, and it’s no longer an abstract issue confined to industry insiders or economists.

Due to my long association with the tea industry, friends often ask me: if tea gardens are not profitable, why do so many people want to own them? More importantly, who skims the milk in our tea value chain?

Despite having spent more than three decades in the financial sector, I faced the real test as a credit officer when I was appointed head of restructuring and recovery at Standard Chartered Bank. This was particularly so during audit, portfolio review and due diligence assignments following the Asian financial meltdown in 1997, in East Africa, Greater China and Europe.

The future of healthcare in Bangladesh depends on whether we can move beyond words and take real action.

The interim government has presented its first national budget, possibly the last under this setup.