Among the five Shariah-based banks slated for merger by the central bank, three have agreed to the regulator’s plan, while two have opposed it during separate meetings in the last three days..Those that agreed are First Security Islami Bank PLC (FSIB), Global Islami Bank PLC (GIB), and Uni

The prospect of five Islamic banks in Bangladesh being merged into one “New Bank” has raised a general concern over whether such a move is the most effective solution to their problems. Merger memories exist in our banking history. My central argument is that restructuring each bank individually offers a more sustainable path forward.

Conventional banks dominate remittance inflow as Islamic lenders face trust deficit

Ahsan H Mansur stated that the country's Islamic banking sector would be completely restructured as most of the existing Islamic banks are currently in trouble.

The Bangladesh Bank (BB) yesterday extended an additional Tk 2,500 crore in emergency liquidity support to Social Islami Bank and First Security Islami Bank without any security to help them address financial crises.

A bank will not be able to do Islamic banking business along with conventional banking at the same time, according to the draft ‘Islami Bank Company Act-2024’, as the central bank looks to level the playing field for Shariah-based banks.

Conventional lenders in Bangladesh fell behind shariah-based banks in 2022 in terms of profit growth mainly due to the lower interest rate regime.  

Most of the Shariah-compliant banks in Bangladesh clocked higher profits in 2022 despite a fall in deposits and the unprecedented fund withdrawal by customers and liquidity crunch.  

Deposit flow to Islamic banks in Bangladesh registered a fall in the fourth quarter of 2022, the first such decline in eight years, in a sign of erosion of confidence among savers owing to loan irregularities.

Four more shariah-based banks have been found to have taken emergency funds, which are usually taken during extraordinary circumstances, in an attempt at dressing up their balance sheet for last year.