THE year 2022 that has gone by has been a bad time for the banking sector because of a horde of problems manifest in loan scams, irregularities, the loss of depositor’s confidence, an absence of democratic governance and blanket privileges offered to wilful defaulters. All this brings to the fore the structural weaknesses of the sector that experts believe are but the manifestation of the regulator’s inadequacy that has resulted either from political considerations or the moneyed clout. Many of the problems that have plagued the banking sector have not happened in a year. The government and other relevant public agencies which were to take corrective measures in the national interests, rather, appear to have deplorably failed to make even a meaningful move in 2022. All this, in turn, has left a horde of responsibilities for the government to seriously attend to certain issues in 2023 to keep the banking sector sound. Loan scams that happened in Islami Bank, Social Islami Bank and First Security Islami Bank in 2022 only made the list of earlier loan scams long. Islami Bank alone has run to a loan scam of Tk 300 billion at the hands of the Chattogram-based S Alam Group, which a central bank audit report says is entitled to a loan amount of Tk 2.15 billion.
While such scams have eroded depositor’s confidence, prompting many to withdraw their deposit…
