Bangladesh

If there’s any bank in Bangladesh that wears its values on its sleeve, it’s the one Selim Hussain has directed since 2015.

No surprise here for regular Asiamoney readers. Although Eastern Bank was incorporated in 1992, its run as Bangladesh’s one-stop solution for corporate customers dates back to 2002. Since then, it has consistently buttressed its reputation for innovative products and services, a quality portfolio and sustainable growth.

Anyone searching for Asia’s next boom town could do worse than check Naser Ezaz Bijoy’s whereabouts. His stints in Vietnam, the Philippines and the United Arab Emirates dovetailed nicely with those countries’ transitions from development backwaters to investment darlings.

Few economic peers are going digital as rapidly as Bangladesh. Even in this disruptive context, 25-year-old Prime Bank is a stand out. A bank that is, in the words of chief executive Rahel Ahmed, “moving faster than technology.”

Once again this year, Bangladesh’s leading non-bank financial institution is a shoo-in for top lender in the small and medium-sized enterprises sector.

When this 37-year-old institution won Asiamoney honours in the past, it was in premium services. No other local lender can compete with its priority banking division, Citygem. More recently, though, the bank led by chief executive Mashrur Arefin is impressing us with its corporate social responsibility efforts.

The Association for Social Advancement has come a long, long way since its humble beginnings in the remote village of Tapra 42 years ago.

Bangladesh's Grameen Bank pioneered the fields of microfinance and microcredit, earning founder Muhammad Yunus a Nobel Peace Prize and helping shape the Asian financial system.