Mamun Rashid

It is a very tough exercise for our central bank to arrive at an optimal exchange rate and interest rate and, more importantly, ensure adequate liquidity in the market for credit creation without denting market discipline.

The new government has inherited a financial system burdened by three interrelated weaknesses: poor governance, fragile balance sheets and erosion of public trust in policy decisions and credibility.

The new government takes office at a time when Bangladesh’s banking sector is adrift after years of widespread plunder.

Following the recent conclusion of a trade agreement between India and the European Union, and the prospect of tariff reductions under a US-India bilateral trade deal, fresh concerns have emerged among Bangladeshi exporters.

While I was auditing Indonesia during the Asian financial meltdown, a senior colleague asked me if I had seen any branches of Goldman Sachs or Bankers Trust.

One of the deepest wounds in the economy today lies in the banking sector.

The Bangladesh Investment Development Authority chairman recently said that foreign direct investment has increased significantly, and he hinted that the return of Tarique Rahman could strengthen investor confidence.

The major causes of the multifaceted crises facing the country in the recent past have largely been the shortage of foreign currency and the continuous depletion of foreign exchange reserves.

Bangladesh’s economy showed signs of consolidation in 2025. Market liquidity, especially foreign currency liquidity, improved significantly, driven by a rise in wage earners’ remittances, a moderate increase in exports, and higher foreign aid disbursement. Inflation, however, continued to remain stubbornly high.

Fear seeps into markets, schools, offices, and homes.

My own act of resistance was small. It came in the form of a tiny pebble thrown at a military jeep passing through our town.

For more than forty years, Bangladesh has carried a remarkable story of economic transformation. A country rooted in agriculture built one of the world’s most influential apparel industries through grit, discipline and a willingness to learn. The label “Made in Bangladesh” travelled across continents because workers and entrepreneurs believed they could do something bigger than their circumstances. That belief helped reshape the national economy and identity.

Bangladesh has lost one of its most enduring builders. M Matiul Islam, the country’s first finance secretary and a pioneering figure in the nation’s economic architecture, passed away on November 20 at the age of 95.

Though I spent my banking life with foreign banks, I was mostly half-hearted about knowing the courtroom performance of local lawyers. Many were seen arriving without having done enough homework before defending their clients.

While at PwC, we implemented many CBS (core banking system), ERP (enterprise resource planning), CRM (customer relationship management), data analytics or technology transformation projects at various enterprises or banks. While our clients focused on smooth implementation by engaging our cross-border or the best of local resources, senior regulators or bureaucrats often used to ask us why we engaged so many cross-border technology experts and why we did not pursue joint business relationships or rely more on local firms. The hard truth was that we often had to engage cross-border resources because there was an identified shortage of trained local technology project implementation teams or firms.

I became a credit signatory at ANZ Grindlays Bank in 1992. At Standard Chartered Bank, I had to clear all fourteen modules of the Credit Skills Assessment (CSA) by OMEGA London to qualify as a proper risk manager. At Citibank N.A., apart from my long experience in corporate banking and loan restructuring, I also needed cross-border audit exposure to even be considered for the Senior Credit Officer (SCO) designation.

Retail banking in Bangladesh is entering a moment of reckoning. With the Bangladesh Bank (BB) preparing to issue digital banking licences, and with more organised mobile financial services, AI and platform technology becoming mainstream, it is no longer enough for a bank to be a place where peop

What would have happened if we had lost the 1971 war?

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.

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.