The Bangladesh Post Office (BPO) owns Nagad and it has now been taken over as a government organisation, Bangladesh Bank Governor Ahsan H Mansur said yesterday.

As foreign aid in the pipeline reached nearly $46 billion at the start of this fiscal year, the interim government will take initiatives to utilise those funds to bolster the country’s foreign currency reserves.

The latest move comes after a mass uprising toppled Sheikh Hasina, a long-time rival of Khaleda, on August 5, ending a15-year Awami League rule.

Six banks including four Shariah-based ones are still facing a deficit in their current accounts with the central bank despite special liquidity support.

Ahmed said when one group leaves, another group begins preparations to extort people.

In a change of heart, economist and public policy analyst M Masrur Reaz has decided against joining the Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC) as its chairman.

Wage growth in Bangladesh fell slightly last month after climbing for 30 months since January 2022, according to official data.

The Bangladesh Bank may increase the policy rate for both local and foreign currencies in a bid to reduce inflation and increase international reserves.

We have been talking about banking sector reforms since long as our banking sector is plagued with insider lending, bad loans, low capitalisation and risk coverage, weak governance, sub-optimal automation, a lack of expert manpower and non-availability of better products to serve the emerging clients and cater their shifting demands.

Finance Adviser Salehuddin Ahmed has vowed to mete out exemplary punishment to big loan defaulters as the interim government scrambles to fix the ailing banking sector of Bangladesh.

A senior central bank official said security concerns have been gradually easing, which is why the withdrawal limit was relaxed.

Directors of eight private banks borrowed heavily from each other’s banks in reciprocal lending practices fraught with serious risks. Some banks went one step further and lent thousands of crores to relatives of these banks’ chairmen or directors. 

He will serve for four years, according to a notification issued by the Financial Institutions Division of the finance ministry.

SIBL, in which Chattogram-based S Alam Group holds a majority stake, hid Tk 7,924 crore of its defaulted loans, according to an inspection by the central bank.

Bangladesh’s worsening economic crisis has spun off a price shock with food inflation crossing 14 percent in July for the first time in 13 years.

People’s sufferings due to cash shortages have intensified as most ATM booths started running dry nearly a week ago in Bangladesh.

The Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC) has lifted the floor price mechanism for Beximco Ltd, Khulna Power Generation and Shahjibazar Power effective today, according to an order from the market regulator issued last Thursday.

Abdur Rouf Talukder resigned from the post of governor of the Bangladesh Bank on Friday, four days after Sheikh Hasina stepped down as prime minister and fled the country in the face of a mass uprising.

The priorities of newly appointed finance adviser Salehuddin Ahmed should be to make key financial institutions functional immediately, control inflation, and present accurate data on exports, imports, GDP and important economic indicators, economists said.

Economic activities are finally returning to normal after three weeks of upheaval as both garment and non-garment factories started operations in full swing yesterday, according to industry insiders.