BRAC Bank, City Bank in talks to take over StanChart retail business

Standard Chartered Bank (SCB) plans to wind down its retail banking operation in Bangladesh, according to officials familiar with the matter.

Two leading local private lenders—BRAC Bank and City Bank—confirmed that they are in initial talks with SCB regarding the takeover.

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“This was a primary discussion to take over the foreign lender's retail operation. There is no update now about the issue,” said BRAC Bank Managing Director and CEO Tareq Refat Ullah Khan.

A senior official of City Bank, seeking anonymity, also confirmed that there was an informal meeting with SCB Bangladesh one and a half months ago about the issue.

SCB prefers City Bank and BRAC Bank due to their reputations in the market, he said, adding that this is why the foreign lender discussed the issue with the two local lenders.

He said that when a bank wants to take over a segment of another bank, there are many issues, including valuation, audits and regulatory approval, so it was a preliminary discussion.

“We are in the race,” said the official.

Arief Hossain Khan, executive director and spokesperson of Bangladesh Bank, confirmed that they had come to know that this was a plan and that no decision had yet been taken on the issue.

“Standard Chartered is a foreign bank, and it can take any decisions as per its strategy,” he said, adding that the central bank hopes that employees of the retail segment will not be terminated without appropriate regulation and that there will be no agitation if the lender closes its retail operation.

On the issue, Bitopi Das Chowdhury, country head of corporate affairs and brand & marketing at SCB Bangladesh, said Standard Chartered Group continually assesses the efficacy of its global business model and, where necessary, takes action to focus resources where it has the most distinctive client proposition.

SCB has been operating in Bangladesh for over 120 years, with its first branch opened in Chattogram in 1905. Today, it has 18 branches nationwide that cater to key economic centres.

In July last year, HSBC announced its decision to wind down its retail banking operations in Bangladesh.