The country’s banking sector passed the year 2022 amid various crises and controversies as the Bangladesh Bank’s apathy about the continued irregularities, the loss of confidence among depositors and the dollar shortage persisted as a paramount concern for the sector.
With the sky-high volumes of bad loans, wholesale privileges to defaulters, widespread anomalies and absence of good governance, the banking sector seemed to be overseen by a ‘toothless’ regulator, economists and financial market analysts observed.
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In the latest episodes of anomalies, a number of Shariah banks further exposed a longstanding bleeding wound in the banking sector.
Three Shariah banks — Islami Bank, Social Islami Bank and First Security Islami Bank — allegedly sanctioned huge amounts of loans to some shell companies without proper collateral and documents.
As the loan irregularities became public knowledge, depositors, worried about their money in the banks, had rushed to those to withdraw money.
The central bank’s reputation hit rock bottom as it remained mum over the unprecedented magnitude of the borrowings involving massive irregularities rather, it turned out, the regulating institution practically facilitated the unlawful lending.
On top of that, the BB, shrugging off…
