Hasina’s 15-year rule made banking sector fragile: ABB chairman

The banking sector has become fragile in the last 15 years during the rule of the Sheikh Hasina-led government and the situation is even worse now than what one can think, said Selim RF Hussain, chairman of the Association of Bankers Association (ABB).

"You see names of some banks in the newspaper. But there are many names which are yet to be unveiled," he said.

Hussain made the comments at a dialogue at the Lakeshore Hotel in Dhaka organised by the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) to discuss the challenges of the interim government and what it should do now.

Now the second most important agenda of the current government is to focus on the banking sector, he said.

"So, the interim government should revive the central bank and I think this has already started with the appointment of the new governor."

The banker congratulated the protesting students for the mass uprising and said: "We now have freedom of speech. We did not have it in the last 14-15 years."

Hussain, also the managing director and chief executive officer of BRAC Bank, also criticised the bureaucratic tangles in the system.

At the event, Shams Mahmud, director of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, demanded stern action against the corrupt bank directors.

The accounts of scam-hit banks' directors should be frozen and they should not be allowed to leave the country, he said.

Fahmida Khatun, executive director of the CPD, moderated the event.