BB creates ‘Policy Advisor’ post to implement banking reforms

Bangladesh Bank (BB) has created a temporary post titled 'Policy Advisor' in order to conduct reforms in the banking sector.

Bangladesh Bank Deputy Governor Abu Farah Md Nasser is likely to be appointed as the policy advisor on contractual basis for a year after completing his three-year tenure in his existing post, which will end this month.

Bangladesh Bank Executive Director and Spokesperson Md Mezbaul Haque confirmed about the matter to The Daily Star today.

The banking watchdog approved the creation of the post in a board meeting yesterday.

The new post has been created primarily for a year and the central bank board will decide later about its future tenure extension, Bangladesh Bank officials said.

The Policy Advisor will help implement the roadmap the BB unveiled on Sunday in order to control the default loans and ensure good governance in the banking sector, they said.

The central bank targets bringing the default loans to less than 8 percent of all outstanding loans by June 30 of 2026 with the help of its economic policies.

Experts said most of the policies introduced by the central bank in recent years have failed to reduce bad loans in the banking sector.

Salehuddin Ahmed, a former BB governor, told The Daily Star that the banking sector has become weak due to the inactive role of the central bank.

"This reform plan is not new. Such types of policies were introduced before, but were hardly executed. The BB has now announced this roadmap to show that it is very active."