Md Mehedi Hasan

Bangladesh should consider emerging markets that are growing at a healthy clip and offer growth opportunities to drive up exports instead of keep relying on traditional destinations, said Frederic Neumann, HSBC’s Chief Asia Economist and co-head of Global Research Asia.

The chief executives of at least three private commercial banks told The Daily Star that the BB had verbally allowed them to quote Tk 1 more than the exchange rate to collect US dollars amid the ongoing forex crunch.

ICB Islamic Bank, which took shape from the ruins of Oriental Bank in 2008, is now failing to repay the depositors’ money due to severe liquidity crisis, indicating a vulnerable situation of the lender.

Bangladesh’s foreign exchange reserves have been falling since September 2021 despite a series of government initiatives to reverse the trend.

Currently, the government is borrowing heavily from commercial banks using the tool as the central bank has suspended injecting fresh money into the economy to avoid fuelling inflation, which has stayed above 9 percent for the past 20 months.

The deficit in the financial account stood at $9.25 billion in July-March of the current fiscal year, Bangladesh Bank data showed. It was $2.92 billion in the first nine months of the previous fiscal year and $8.46 billion in July-February of 2023-24.

The interest rates on consumer loans, forced loans and overdue loans are likely to go up rapidly in the upcoming months, however.

The FID later backtracked following criticism from different quarters, including the International Monetary Fund (IMF), about the formation of a public corporation since state enterprises have usually underperformed in the country.

BASIC Bank is experiencing a deep liquidity crunch as depositors have been withdrawing money for weeks following news that the state-run lender is going to be acquired by a private commercial bank.

The Sikder family has apparently lost its grip on National Bank Ltd as Bangladesh Bank has appointed a new board for the country’s first private bank.

In July last year, the central bank withdrew the 9 percent lending rate cap and introduced the Six-months Moving Average Rate of Treasury bills (SMART).

Amid persistently higher inflation in Bangladesh for more than a year, the low- and middle-income groups are struggling to meet their daily expenses.

From last July to April 22 this year, government loans from commercial banks amounted to Tk 65,432 crore, according to Bangladesh Bank. In the same 10 months or so of fiscal year 2022-23, it was only Tk 5,334 crore.

In fact, the reactions of the associated bankers and directors, circumstances centring the meetings where the decisions were taken alongside protests in one case confirmed that these had been decided by the government and relayed through the central bank.

A recent rush to withdraw money from the BASIC Bank and National Bank is worsening the situation the troubled institutions are facing.

Bangladesh Bank has ordered Janata Bank to cancel the Tk 3,359 crore interest waiver facility the lender had allowed to AnonTex Group, after an audit found forgeries and scams involving the loans.

Bank Asia is likely to acquire the Bangladesh operations of Karachi-based Bank Alfalah, according to information disclosed to the Pakistan Stock Exchange yesterday.

Bank Asia is going to hold a meeting of its board of directors next Sunday and is likely to disclose the mater in detail, a senior official of Bank Asia said.

Although banks in the country normally face a liquidity shortage due to cash withdrawals ahead of Eid-ul-Fitr each year, a majority of them have sufficient funds on hand this time around thanks to continuous liquidity support from Bangladesh Bank.

The central bank has already unveiled a framework to address vulnerabilities in the banking sector, rein in non-performing loans (NPLs) and punish wilful defaulters.