Bangladesh Bank (BB; ) is the central bank of Bangladesh. Bangladesh Bank is the principal monetary authority of the country and is responsible for issuing currency, formulating and implementing monetary policy, and maintaining price and financial stability. It is a member of the Asian Clearing Union and is fully owned by the Government of Bangladesh.
The bank is active in developing green banking. and financial inclusion policy and is an important member of the Alliance for Financial Inclusion. Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU), a department of Bangladesh Bank, is a member FIU of the Egmont Group of Financial Intelligence Units.
Bangladesh Bank is the first central bank in the world to introduce a dedicated hotline (16236) for people to complain about any banking-related problem. Moreover, the organization is the first central bank in the world to issue a "Green Banking Policy". To acknowledge this contribution, then-governor Dr. Atiur Rahman was given the title 'Green Governor' at the 2012 United Nations Climate Change Conference, which was held at the Qatar National Convention Centre in Doha.
History
On 7 April 1972, after the Bangladesh Liberation War and the eventual independence of Bangladesh, the Government of Bangladesh passed the Bangladesh Bank Order, (P.O. No. 127 of 1972), reorganising the Dhaka branch of the State Bank of Pakistan as Bangladesh Bank, the country's central bank and apex regulatory body for the country's monetary and financial system.
The 1972 Mujib government pursued a pro-socialist agenda. In 1972, the government decided to nationalise all banks to channel funds to the public sector and to prioritise credit to those sectors that sought to reconstruct the war-torn country – mainly industry and agriculture. However, government control of the wrong sectors prevented these banks from functioning well. This was compounded by the fact that loans were handed out to the public sector without commercial considerations; banks had poor capital lease, provided poor customer service and lacked all market-based monetary instruments. Because loans were given out without commercial considerations (and also took a long time to call a non-performing loan), recovery under the erstwhile judicial system was so expensive that loan recovery was abysmally poor. While the government made a point of intervening everywhere, it did not set up a proper regulatory system to diagnose such problems and correct them. Hence, banking concepts like profitability and liquidity were alien to bank managers, and capital adequacy took a backseat. The Bank has 10 physical branches: Mymensingh, Motijheel, Sadarghat, Barisal, Khulna, Sylhet, Bogra, Rajshahi, Rangpur and Chittagong; each is headed by an executive director. Headquarters are located in the Bangladesh Bank Building in Motijheel, which has two general managers.
Hierarchy
The executive staff is responsible for daily affairs and includes the governor and four deputy governors. Under the governors, there are executive directors and an economic advisor.
The directors of the departments come under the executive directors and are not part of the executive staff. Ahsan H Mansur is the incumbent governor of the bank since 2024. The four current deputy governors are:
- Nurun Nahar,
- Dr. Md. Habibur Rahman,
- Md. Zakir Hossain Chowdhury and
- Dr. Md. Kabir Ahmed
Board of Directors
The general supervision and direction of the Bank's affairs and business are entrusted to a Board of Directors. This Board can exercise all powers and perform all acts on behalf of the Bank.
Composition of the Board:
The winners are:
- Rehman Sobhan (2000)
- Mosharraf Hossain (2011)
- Muzaffar Ahmed and Swadesh Ranjan Bose (2013)
- Wahiduddin Mahmud (2020)
See also
- Bangladesh Bank Taka Museum
- Bangladesh Bank robbery
- The Foreign Exchange Regulation Act, 1947 (Bangladesh)
- The Security Printing Corporation (Bangladesh) Ltd.
- List of financial supervisory authorities by country
Citations
Notes
References
External links
- Banks Information BD All Banks information in Bangladesh