The continued negative outlook towards our banking sector by the American financial services company Moody’s is disappointing but unsurprising, yet it is now for our newly-elected government to prioritize the health of our financial sector and begin changing this negative outlook towards the positive.
There is no denying the immensely challenging environment that the current BNP government inherits - indeed, these are the same challenges that the interim government faced in August 2024.
Our financial sector was all but decimated by the previous Awami League administration in its decade and a half in power, with literally tens of billions of dollars unaccounted for, and the state of non-performing loans as a result of these actions now standing at a staggering Tk 6.44 lakh crore, nearly 36% of total loans disbursed.
With that said, work had begun during the tenure of the interim government to begin rectifying these errors, and the current administration must be prepared and up to the task of continuing this work.
Above all else, there is simply no room anymore for any manner of fiscal negligence; our country’s once- stellar growth rate now feels a distant goal, and it is stabilization and bringing trust again to the financial sector that must be the first goal.
The government cannot do this alone, and it is on the private sector as well to contribute. Only a concerted effort where everybody understands the magnitude of the predicament we are in, and are working in tandem to address the issues, will we even begin to start seeing a visible, positive turnaround.
