Across the world, financial sectors have faced collapse and come back stronger. The United States rebuilt trust after the savings and Loan crisis of the 1980s. India restored confidence in its non-bank financial companies through governance reform and liquidity support. In Bangladesh, Pubali Bank, City Bank and Eastern Bank once struggled but reinvented themselves through strong management and transparent governance.

As per the spectrum roadmap published by the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC), the regulator plans to auction the 700 MHz band this year. The base price has been set at Tk 263 crore per MHz of spectrum. With 7.5 percent VAT, the cost rises to Tk 284 crore per MHz, though the government is considering a 10 percent discount on this steep rate. 

Rebates are legitimate incentives meant to reward responsible financial behaviour

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.

If you ever find yourself stuck in traffic at Mohakhali Flyover, you will probably notice your hand reaching for your phone before the CNG ahead even coughs out a cloud of black smoke.

As full interoperability launches on November 1, 2025, Bangladesh stands on the verge of its most transformative financial reform since the birth of mobile money, one that could turn inefficiency into inclusion and cash into data-driven growth. 

It was once beyond imagination that money could exist entirely in digital form, except in science fiction. Then it happened. Crypto began as a small experiment and turned into a global phenomenon.

For years, citizens in Bangladesh have struggled with a fragmented and inefficient system for obtaining vital documents.

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.

If you walk into a startup pitch competition in Dhaka, it often feels like going to a winter wedding. Everyone wears the same panjabi and waistcoat, and talks about disruption in the same polished accent they learned from a YouTube video.

Bangladesh must rethink how it finances its infrastructure. The current system is too weak to bear the weight of an aspiring middle-income nation. Highways, ports, power grids, water systems, health facilities, education, digital networks, business districts and technology hubs all demand massive investment if the country is to become a developed economy.

Bangladesh’s economy presents a striking contrast. Its markets for real sector products such as consumer goods, construction materials, pharmaceuticals, and real assets like land and apartments are relatively robust, with their share of GDP comparable to peer countries.

Bangladesh’s economic success over the past two decades is remarkable, yet its foundation remains precariously narrow.

Succession planning remains one of the weakest aspects of corporate governance in Bangladesh. While multinationals operating here view salaries as long-term investments in leadership pipelines, most local firms continue to treat them as costs.

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.

When Citibank Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Jane Fraser decided to wind down the bank’s retail operations around the world, her main focus was to pivot towards wealth management. HSBC has taken a similar approach, and its recent closure of retail banking in Bangladesh and markets such as Indonesia reflects this shift.

The officially reported figures showing only a slight rise in food inflation in September 2025 seem hard to reconcile with ground realities. Anyone who has visited a kitchen market in Dhaka in recent months knows that the prices of essentials, such as rice, flour, pulses, edible oil, meat, and fish, have surged far more sharply than the marginal 0.04 percentage point increase would suggest.

Bangladesh’s banking sector is entering a historic transformation as five Shariah-based private commercial banks prepare to merge into a single state-owned Islamic bank. The institutions under consideration are First Security Islami Bank, Global Islami Bank, Union Bank, Social Islami Bank and EXIM Bank. Backed by the Bangladesh Bank, the merger aims to restore confidence in Islamic banking, improve governance and strengthen financial stability. Yet for shareholders, one question remains: what will happen to their investments?

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.

A CEO in Dhaka once gathered his managers and declared with great seriousness, “Our company has only one purpose: to maximise profit.