Humaira Azam, the former managing director and chief executive officer of the non-bank financial institution IPDC, is breaking another new ground: she is poised to become the first female MD and CEO of a private bank in Bangladesh.
Azam, who has been serving as the additional managing director at Trust Bank since 2018, has been chosen by the Army Welfare Trust-backed bank’s board on Monday to succeed Faruq Mainuddin Ahmed.
Her appointment is awaiting the final approval of the Bangladesh Bank.
Mahtab Jabin, a former managing director of Probashi Kallyan Bank, was the first female to occupy such a position in a bank in Bangladesh.
Previously, a number of women served as interim MDs and CEOs in banks, with Johora Bebe most recently stepping in for a few months in Meghna Bank.
Azam, who graduated from Dhaka University with a Masters degree in International Relations in 1989, started her career as a management trainee in ANZ Grindlays Bank in 1990. In 1996, she joined HSBC Bangladesh, where she went on to become the head of the Financial Institutions department.
In 2002, she joined Standard Chartered Bank, where she served for seven years as the director of its Group Special Assets Management (GSAM) department and director and head of the Financial Institutions department.
In April 2009, she joined IPDC as its MD and CEO. In 2012, she moved to Bank Asia as its deputy managing director and chief risk officer.
Established in 1999, Trust Bank today has 114 branches.
Earlier in December last year, the bank made a foray into the mobile financial services arena by partnering with Malaysian telecommunications conglomerate Axiata Group.
Trust Bank holds a 51 per cent stake in Trust Axiata Pay (TAP) and Axiata the remaining 49 per cent. TAP’s focus will be wallet-based services.
The bank is yet to unveil its earnings for 2020. In 2019, it logged in a profit of Tk 203.7 crore, up 9.3 per cent year-on-year.
Shares of Trust Bank, which gained 24.6 per cent in 2020, closed at Tk 31.5 on Monday, up 0.3 per cent from the previous session.
