Foreword for the Third Edition

The year 2020 has been an exceptionally difficult year for the global economy. With the outbreak of the COVID 19 pandemic, all our countries, including Bangladesh, have had to deal with the severe health consequences of the pandemic. Adverse economic impacts of the unprecedented crisis have been no less serious. Our plan to bring out the present edition of the Bangladesh Banking Almanac on time also suffered as it turned out to be specially challenging to collect materials and information when our banking and financial institutions themselves were going through serious operational disruptions and curtailed routine work. We, however, felt that it would be important to bring out the Almanac as the availability of its updated version will serve the purpose of providing the much sought after information on the continued importance of the health of our banking and financial institutions in the midst of the present crisis. Notwithstanding the crisis in which Bangladesh find her today, these institutions remain pivotal for their continued role in ensuring the strength of our economy and also for our efforts to overcome the pandemic induced economic slowdown through implementation of targeted crisis management stimulus packages.

Like in the previous year’s our present Almanac retains all its previous features which were of so much interest. Care has been taken to compile all the updated information and details on the structure and organizations of our banking and financial institutions, their capital structure and composition, details on relevant performance related indicators, product ranges, extent of countrywide spatial coverage of operation and the CSR portfolio of these institutions which provide a good snapshot on the nature, performance and main thrust of their activities. This year a special effort was made to collect on some information and data on  how our banks and financial institutions are making their particular contribution to the overall national strategy to mitigate and cope with the consequences of the COVID pandemic while trying to keep the engine of national economic recovery and growth running.

I owe my thanks to the Almanac data collection team and specialist experts who had to work under very difficult circumstances to collect the updated material and data for these year's Almanac and put them together in the best possible way to make them user friendly. I shall also be remiss if I did not acknowledge the support and assistance from the banks and financial institutions themselves who readily responded to our request for relevant data and information and other concrete help. The Bangladesh Bank was extremely helpful by forwarding our request for information and data to the institutions from where we planned to collect them. Bangladesh Bank provided financial support for the last two editions of the Almanac.

Mr. Abdar Rahman of ShikhaBichitra and Project Director of Banking Almanac Project was consistent and unfailing in devoting his time and energy to carry forward the work on the Almanac’s present version. Needless to say, without his committed work, it would have been difficult to complete our work. I have a word of special thanks for him from the Editorial Board. My special thanks also go to the esteemed members of the Editorial Board who represented the blend of professionalism, years of experience from their respective domains of expertise and a unique insight into the working of our economy and Bangladesh Banking and Financial Institutions sector.

I commend the present edition of our Almanac to the broad range of readership, experts, professionals, institutions and others, with the hope that, they will find it of continued relevance. We shall feel our efforts to have been amply rewarded if the Almanac serves its intended purpose which is none other than to be a source book on information on our ever growing number of banks and financial institutions which have become an integral part of our everyday life and contemporary reality of our economy.

Dr. Salehuddin Ahmed
Former Governor, Bangladesh Bank(Central Bank).
Professor, BRAC University.