This is not right.
Instead of ensuring that banks comply with regulations, the Finance Ministry’s decision to bail them out with tax-payer money sends the wrong message.
In the latest budget, the Finance Ministry set aside Tk2,000 crore for the banks for recapitalization, in essence rewarding them for their misdemeanours.
Banks, especially state-owned ones, have continuously flouted the rules and disbursed loans which have defaulted.
The total amount now rests at over Tk70,000 crore.
This trend is a potential catastrophe in the making, one that could bring our entire economy to its knees.
There is, in effect, a culture of bad loans, and until we hold our banks up to a certain standard, ensuring that each and every loan application goes through a rigorous process by which bad loans are minimized, such a trend will only continue.
By rewarding them, the government is sending the message that such behaviour is perfectly acceptable.
And to do so with tax-payer money, it is the public who will bear the brunt of such malpractices.
What makes the situation far worse is that this money, instead of actually ensuring that these banks stay afloat, is being siphoned out and lining the pockets of corrupt officials in the industry.
Is this the kind of banking sector we want for ourselves, one that has such utter disregard for the heard-earned money of Bangladeshi citizens?
Of course not.
What the government needs to do now is to rein in these offending banks so that they comply with governmental rules and regulations, and make sure that those responsible for non-compliance are punished.
Tuesday, July 21, 2026
