Banks and FIs in Bangladesh

Banks
After the independence, banking industry in Bangladesh started its journey with 6 Nationalized commercialized banks, 2 State owned Specialized banks and 3 Foreign Banks. In the 1980’s banking industry achieved significant expansion with the entrance of private banks. Now, banks in Bangladesh are primarily of two types:

• Scheduled Banks: The banks which get license to operate under Bank Company Act, 1991 (Amended upto 2013) are termed as Scheduled Banks.
• Non-Scheduled Banks: The banks which are established for special and definite objective and operate under the acts that are enacted for meeting up those objectives, are termed as Non-Scheduled Banks. These banks cannot perform all functions of scheduled banks.

There are 56 scheduled banks in Bangladesh who operate under full control and supervision of Bangladesh Bank which is empowered to do so through Bangladesh Bank Order, 1972 and Bank Company Act, 1991. Scheduled Banks are classified into following types:

• State Owned Commercial Banks (SOCBs): There are 6 SOCBs which are fully or majorly owned by the Government of Bangladesh.
• Specialized Banks (SDBs): 2 specialized banks are now operating which were established for specific objectives like agricultural or industrial development. These banks are also fully or majorly owned by the Government of Bangladesh.
• Private Commercial Banks (PCBs): There are 39 private commercial banks which are majorly owned by the private entities. PCBs can be categorized into two groups:
• Conventional PCBs: 31 conventional PCBs are now operating in the industry. They perform the banking functions in conventional fashion i.e interest based operations.
• Islami Shariah based PCBs: There are 8 Islami Shariah based PCBs in Bangladesh and they execute banking activities according to Islami Shariah based principles i.e. Profit-Loss Sharing (PLS) mode.
• Foreign Commercial Banks (FCBs): 9 FCBs are operating in Bangladesh as the branches of the banks which are incorporated in abroad.

There are now 4 non-scheduled banks in Bangladesh which are:

• Ansar VDP Unnayan Bank,
• Karmashangosthan Bank,
• Probashi Kollyan Bank,
• Jubilee Bank

FIs
Non Bank Financial Institutions (FIs) are those types of financial institutions which are regulated under Financial Institution Act, 1993 and controlled by Bangladesh Bank. Now, 33 FIs are operating in Bangladesh while the maiden one was established in 1981. Out of the total, 2 is fully government owned, 1 is the subsidiary of a SOCB, 15 were initiated by private domestic initiative and 15 were initiated by joint venture initiative. Major sources of funds of FIs are Term Deposit (at least three months tenure), Credit Facility from Banks and other FIs, Call Money as well as Bond and Securitization.
The major difference between banks and FIs are as follows:

• FIs cannot issue cheques, pay-orders or demand drafts.
• FIs cannot receive demand deposits,
• FIs cannot be involved in foreign exchange financing,
• FIs can conduct their business operations with diversified financing modes like syndicated financing, bridge financing, lease financing, securitization instruments, private placement of equity etc.