Financial environment of Bangladesh did not improve in the last year and key financial indicators deteriorated further at different levels.
It is reflected in the Executive Opinion Survey (EOS), conducted in Bangladesh during the early period of Covid-19 pandemic.
Some 60.70 per cent of respondents of the survey opined that ‘soundness of banks is below the normal level’ and this has deteriorated in 2019 compared to the previous year.
Again, 64.0 per cent of businessmen perceived that ‘financial auditing and reporting standard is weak’ and the level of weakness has deteriorated further.
“Weak state of the banking sector has been widely discussed during the pre-covid period which is mainly happened due to failure to address wilful default culture, weak corporate governance, poor application of regulatory framework and prevalence of money laundering through banking channel,” said the analysis of the survey.
EOS is conducted to prepare the country study of the Global Competitiveness Report (GCR), the flagship publication of the World Economic Forum (WEF). GCR 2020 was released globally on Wednesday.
In Bangladesh, Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) is the partner organisation of WEF and responsible for preparing the Bangladesh part of the study.
Dr Khondaker Golam Moazzem, Research Director of CPD presented the findings and analyses of the report Thursday morning in Dhaka through a virtual press briefing.
CPD executive director Dr Fahmida Khatun delivered the introductory speech.
“Government earlier announced forming an independent banking commission which did not make progress during the covid period,” said CPD in the analytical note of the survey. “CPD has long been proposed forming such a commission.”
The survey finding also showed that access to finance is largely targeted to large scale enterprises where SMEs and start-ups find it difficult to get necessary credit support.
Some 84.0 per cent of respondent believes that it is largely difficult for start-up entrepreneurs to obtain equity funding while 62.0 per cent of respondent mentioned about poor financial access of SMEs.
“Banking sector has played a major role during the COVID-19 pandemic period by financing subsidised credit to different categories of enterprises and businesses,” it added.
It also mentioned that access to finance for the most needy and marginalised groups is highly difficult and SMEs, informal and agriculture sectors are the deprived ones.
