Mamun Rashid

Retail banking in Bangladesh is entering a moment of reckoning. With the Bangladesh Bank (BB) preparing to issue digital banking licences, and with more organised mobile financial services, AI and platform technology becoming mainstream, it is no longer enough for a bank to be a place where peop

What would have happened if we had lost the 1971 war?

Nearly two years ago, the Bangladesh Bank issued a letter of intent (LOI) for licensing two digital banks. The process later proved flawed, and the recipients were seen as personally favoured.

I went to my village home a few weeks ago. My uncle, a veteran of the 1971 Liberation War, does not mind paying extra to secure a job for his graduate son.

The Economist once credited effective cash management, also known as transaction banking, as a key reason for Citigroup’s survival during the global financial meltdown in 2008. Citi’s global transaction services earned a lot of recognition for helping the bank manage its assets and liabilities more efficiently.

Across the world, bank mergers or acquisitions are supposed to create added synergy. In our part of the world, however, they are often undertaken out of necessity.

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.