Dr Ahmad Al Kabir, Former Chairman, Rupali Bank:
Apart from modernization, the country’s banking sector is now facing some new challenges. A competition of a different kind has become evident between the old staff who are not technically sound and the staff equipped with modern technical knowledge. Certainly, there are many old staff who have already developed themselves and adapted to the changing environment. They are now trying to use their acquired skill in their everyday work.
Some banks are lagging behind in the massive transformation while some others are keeping pace with changing times. The banks capable of coping with the technological advancement are making a difference. A kind of gap has been created among the banks in terms of their performance.
Time has come to narrow down the gap. Earlier, it was possible to hide the information in the banking sector, as the periphery of banking activities was limited. Therefore, banks could easily conceal any piece of information.
Now the periphery and volume of banking activities has increased manifold and there is no chance to hide any data. The chances of concealing the classification rate or loan defaulters are shrinking further. That’s why, it is getting difficult to hide any anomaly. None from outside the banking sector unearthed the frauds like Hallmark and Bismillah; the concerned banks discovered the anomalies. The irregularities were exposed by the audits of the banks or the central bank due to the marked change of the monitoring system. Now it is not an uphill task to discover any anomaly or corruption in the banking sector. As a result, it has become easy to identify any criminal in the sector. Some fundamental changes have to be made to the sector and it is the need of the hour. Translated by Hossen Sohel