Bangladesh Bank to become full autonomous body soon: Governor

As part of comprehensive banking reforms, Bangladesh Bank (BB) Governor Dr. Ahsan H. Mansur announced today that the central bank will soon achieve full autonomy.

“The government has already taken decision to turn the central bank as a full autonomous body. We are taking preparation. We hope that the proposal to this end will be submitted before the Cabinet within two to four months,” he said.

He said this while speaking virtually as the special guest at a session titled “Macroeconomic Policy and Governance in the Banking Sector” of a conference at the BRAC Centre Inn Auditorium in the city.

Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) organised the two-day conference on “Recommendations by the Task Force on Re-Strategizing the Economy”.

Chairman of the National Bank and former president of the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI) Abdul Awal Mintoo attended the session as the guest of honour while Director (Research) of the Chief Economist’s Unit of Bangladesh Bank Dr Md. Salim Al Mamun, Managing Director and CEO of the Mutual Trust Bank Limited Syed Mahbubur Rahman, Chairman of the Global Islami Bank PLC Mohammed Nurul Amin, Professor and Former Chairman Department of Banking and Insurance University of Dhaka Dr Md Moin Uddin and Director General of the Bangladesh Academy for Securities Markets (BASM) Dr Toufic Ahmad Choudhury were present as distinguished discussants.

The keynote addresses were given by Dr. Fahmida Khatun, Executive Director of the CPD and member of the Task Force on Re-Strategicing the Economy, and Dr. Monzur Hossain, member of the Task Force on Re-Strategicing the Economy.

According to Ahsan H. Mansur’s speech, they aim to make the central bank an entirely independent organization that isn’t impacted by the government apparatus.

“We want to reshape focus of the BB. We’ll leave the activities that are not core central banking. We’ll give utmost priority to issues linked with compliance, regulations and enforcement,” he added.

He said a new law titled ‘Bank Resolution Act’ is being formulated to allow the Bangladesh Bank to legally apply corrective measures like mergers and acquisitions, liquidation, re-capitalisation and consolidation of the crisis-ridden banks.

“Under the act, it will be possible to take policy decisions for merger, acquisition, liquidation or recapitalisation of any bank,” he added.

In order to advance the nation’s economy, Dr. Fahmida Khatun placed a strong emphasis on establishing a favorable legal and judicial environment in the banking industry.

In order to improve the nation’s business climate, she encouraged the relevant authorities to guarantee the availability and integrity of timely data.