BANGLADESH BANK - THE CENTRAL BANK OF BANGLADESH

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Bangladesh Bank, the central bank and apex regulatory body for the country's monetary and financial system, was established in Dhaka as a body corporate vide the Bangladesh Bank Order, 1972 (P.O. No. 127 of 1972) with effect from 16th December, 1971. At present it has ten offices located at Motijheel, Sadarghat, Chittagong, Khulna, Bogra, Rajshahi, Sylhet, Barisal, Rangpur and Mymensingh in Bangladesh.

After the independence, banking industry in Bangladesh started its journey with 6 Nationalized commercialized banks, 2 State owned Specialized banks and 3 Foreign Banks. In the 1980's banking industry achieved significant expansion with the entrance of private banks. Now, banks in Bangladesh are primarily of two types:

• Scheduled Banks: The banks which get license to operate under Bank Company Act, 1991 (Amended upto 2013) are termed as Scheduled Banks.

• Non-Scheduled Banks: The banks which are established for special and definite objective and operate under the acts that are enacted for meeting up those objectives, are termed as Non-Scheduled Banks. These banks cannot perform all functions of scheduled banks.

There are 57 scheduled banks in Bangladesh who operate under full control and supervision of Bangladesh Bank which is empowered to do so through Bangladesh Bank Order, 1972 and Bank Company Act, 1991. Scheduled Banks are classified into following types:

• State Owned Commercial Banks (SOCBs): There are 06 State Owned Commercial Banks which are fully or majorly owned by the Government of Bangladesh.
• Specialized Banks (SDBs): 02 Specialized Banks are now operating which were established for specific objectives like agricultural or industrial development. These banks are also fully or majorly owned by the Government of Bangladesh.
• Private Commercial Banks (PCBs): There are 40 Private Commercial Banks which are majorly owned by the private entities. PCBs can be categorized into two groups:
• Conventional Private Commercial Banks (CPCBs): 32 [01-16 & 17-32]Conventional PCBs are now operating in the industry. They perform the banking functions in conventional fashion i.e interest based operations.
• Islami Shariah Based Private Commercial Banks (ISBPCBs): There are 08 Islami Shariah Based PCBs in Bangladesh and they execute banking activities according to Islami Shariah based principles i.e. Profit-Loss Sharing (PLS) mode.
• Foreign Commercial Banks (FCBs): 09 Foreign Commercial Banks are operating in Bangladesh as the branches of the banks which are incorporated in abroad.

There are now 6 non-scheduled banks in Bangladesh which are:

• Ansar VDP Unnayan Bank,
• Karmashangosthan Bank,
• Grameen Bank,
• Jubilee Bank,
• Probashi Kollyan Bank,
• Palli Sanchay Bank

Reference: https://www.bb.org.bd/