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.
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.
Bangladesh is at a traction point in its technology transformation journey, having started later than many global counterparts.
Sri Lanka’s worst economic crisis since its independence began in 2019. Experts attribute a plethora of reasons behind the crisis. First, after the end of the civil war in 2009, the country emphasised providing goods for the local market instead of trade, a decision that led to a continued trade deficit of more than $3 billion each year. Along with trade policies, tax cuts in 2019 led to a loss of government revenue of over $1.4 billion a year.
Bangladesh Bank issued comprehensive guidelines for establishing digital banks in mid-June. This important decision has generated a lot of excitement among different groups, including major banks, non-banking financial institutions (NBFIs) and innovative startups.
I became a management committee (mancom) member of an Australian bank quite early. My climbing to the top role in the local office of a leading USA-based bank was also relatively early. In those days, a CEO was kind of a CEO, no matter whether you drive change or not. Almost always the boss’s man and focusing on upward management.
Of course. Despite challenges around, we have many reasons to be optimistic about Bangladesh.
Capital flight, a growing concern for Bangladesh over the past few decades, refers to the outflow of financial assets from a country. While usual outflow may also be foreign direct investment, the problem arises when the fund transferred from a country does not have proper documentation of source and there is no intend of repatriation of the fund. This leads to loss of government revenue and depletion of foreign currency reserves.
According to a 2021 study of the International Organisation for Migration, there could be an estimated 2.4 million Bangladeshi diaspora members in the UK and the US alone. Therefore, it can be assumed that the total number of Bangladeshis living abroad is huge. Even if a small portion of them contribute their skills, expertise and capital back to Bangladesh, it could make a huge difference.
Sovereign credit ratings (SCR), determined based on a country’s willingness and ability to pay its principal and interest obligations on time, are qualitative indicators that determine a nation’s likelihood of default. Countries’ borrowing costs from international financial markets depend on their SCR. A better SCR means more favourable cost of borrowing and lower SCR means higher cost of borrowing.
The government is consistently failing to meet its tax collection targets. In 2022-23, its target fell short by Tk 44,728 crore. This phenomenon has been going on for the last 11 consecutive fiscal years. Clearly, our existing taxation system is not efficient enough, so something needs to change and change fast.
Non-performing loan (NPL) has been a concern for the banking sector in Bangladesh for quite some time. According to the World Bank, Bangladesh had the second-highest NPL ratio of 9.4 per cent in South Asia in 2022, right after Sri Lanka.
Banking has become relationship manager (RM)-driven in Bangladesh over the last three decades whether it is corporate, commercial, or retail banking. Large clients in corporate or wealth management segments demand very personalised or structured product support backed by world-class service.
