Mutual funds play a vital role in modern capital markets. By pooling savings from thousands of small investors and investing them in diversified portfolios of stocks and bonds, they help make the market more efficient, liquid and stable. For ordinary investors, mutual funds offer a simple way to take part in the market without having to research or monitor individual securities.

Let me tell you about two people.

While at PwC, we implemented many CBS (core banking system), ERP (enterprise resource planning), CRM (customer relationship management), data analytics or technology transformation projects at various enterprises or banks. While our clients focused on smooth implementation by engaging our cross-border or the best of local resources, senior regulators or bureaucrats often used to ask us why we engaged so many cross-border technology experts and why we did not pursue joint business relationships or rely more on local firms. The hard truth was that we often had to engage cross-border resources because there was an identified shortage of trained local technology project implementation teams or firms.

The country’s pharmaceutical industry has achieved remarkable growth over the past four decades. Meeting 98 percent of the domestic demand for medicines worth more than $3 billion and exporting to over 150 countries, including highly regulated markets such as the UK, the US and the EU, it has become a sector of immense strategic importance.

The Bangladesh Bank has set a critical economic goal: to increase the nation’s foreign exchange reserves to approximately $40 billion by June 2026 to stabilise the local currency and bolster economic confidence. While this target is ambitious, recent trends show momentum.

The Bangladesh Bank’s recent decision to merge five distressed Islamic banks into a single entity has been widely praised as a bold move to protect depositors and preserve financial stability.

I became a credit signatory at ANZ Grindlays Bank in 1992. At Standard Chartered Bank, I had to clear all fourteen modules of the Credit Skills Assessment (CSA) by OMEGA London to qualify as a proper risk manager. At Citibank N.A., apart from my long experience in corporate banking and loan restructuring, I also needed cross-border audit exposure to even be considered for the Senior Credit Officer (SCO) designation.

If you have ever seen a group photograph of professional accountants, you might notice something curious. Everyone looks serious, composed, almost expressionless. It is not that accountants dislike joy. They simply know that smiling in public can lead to someone asking for “just a quick look at my accounts”, which is never quick, never simple and rarely free of emotional pain.

As global supply chains adapt to new sustainability rules, one development stands out for its transformative potential: the digital product passport (DPP). For the Bangladesh RMG industry, which drives the export economy, this is not a distant regulatory concept. It is a near-term requirement that could redefine access to the European Union market, our single largest destination for apparel exports.

Last Eid-ul-Azha, I watched my mama in Banani decide he would handle the entire qurbani himself: choosing the cow, doing the paperwork, collecting the cash, sending out the cuts, even cooking the curry while wearing a whistle for some reason.

Across the world, financial sectors have faced collapse and come back stronger. The United States rebuilt trust after the savings and Loan crisis of the 1980s. India restored confidence in its non-bank financial companies through governance reform and liquidity support. In Bangladesh, Pubali Bank, City Bank and Eastern Bank once struggled but reinvented themselves through strong management and transparent governance.

As per the spectrum roadmap published by the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC), the regulator plans to auction the 700 MHz band this year. The base price has been set at Tk 263 crore per MHz of spectrum. With 7.5 percent VAT, the cost rises to Tk 284 crore per MHz, though the government is considering a 10 percent discount on this steep rate. 

Rebates are legitimate incentives meant to reward responsible financial behaviour

Nearly two years ago, the Bangladesh Bank issued a letter of intent (LOI) for licensing two digital banks. The process later proved flawed, and the recipients were seen as personally favoured.

If you ever find yourself stuck in traffic at Mohakhali Flyover, you will probably notice your hand reaching for your phone before the CNG ahead even coughs out a cloud of black smoke.

As full interoperability launches on November 1, 2025, Bangladesh stands on the verge of its most transformative financial reform since the birth of mobile money, one that could turn inefficiency into inclusion and cash into data-driven growth. 

It was once beyond imagination that money could exist entirely in digital form, except in science fiction. Then it happened. Crypto began as a small experiment and turned into a global phenomenon.

For years, citizens in Bangladesh have struggled with a fragmented and inefficient system for obtaining vital documents.

I went to my village home a few weeks ago. My uncle, a veteran of the 1971 Liberation War, does not mind paying extra to secure a job for his graduate son.

If you walk into a startup pitch competition in Dhaka, it often feels like going to a winter wedding. Everyone wears the same panjabi and waistcoat, and talks about disruption in the same polished accent they learned from a YouTube video.