Bangladesh Bank Governor Ahsan H. Mansoor said that sufficient liquidity support has been given to weak banks and it may take five to ten years for these banks to fully turn around.
He said this at a round table meeting titled ‘Path to Recovery for Banking Sector’ at the office of the English newspaper The Business Standard in the capital on Tuesday.
The governor said, “Every day we are sitting with the management of weak banks and observing everything they do. Already we have provided them with a lot of liquidity support. But these banks need 5 to 10 years to fully recapitalize. The banks that have come out of bad situations and done well in our country have also taken about the same time.”
Ahsan H. Mansur also said that agent banking is doing very well in Bangladesh and soon 50 percent of the agents in this sector will be women.
The governor also said, “Revenue is the only solution to meet our government’s budget deficit. If we can increase revenue, we will not have to look to the IMF. I have already told the IMF that we do not need IMF money.”
He said, “Our expatriate income in the current fiscal year will be about $29 billion. Besides, even if our export income is 50 billion, we will still have an extra 10 billion dollars to pay for our imports.’
The roundtable discussion moderated by Inam Ahmed, editor of The Business Standard, was attended by Fahmida Khatun, executive director of research institute CPD, Sharif Zahir, chairman of United Commercial Bank, MA Mannan, chairman of Fast Security Islami Bank, Obaid Ullah-Al Masud, chairman of Islami Bank, Selim RF Hossain, managing director (MD) of BRAC Bank, Ali Reza Iftekhar, MD of Eastern Bank, Masrur Arefin, MD of City Bank, Syed Mahbubur Rahman, MD of Mutual Trust Bank, Sohel RK Hossain, MD of Bank Asia, Matiul Hasan, MD of Mercantile Bank, Syed Mansur Mustafa, MD of IFIC Bank, and others.
