Bangladesh

Last year was a tough one for Bangladesh’s banks. Political instability took a toll in an otherwise strong economy, and many lenders experienced a dip in profits and an increase in bad loans. But one lender sailed serenely through the storm in 2018, staying above the fray.

Since its inception in Bangladesh in 1978, ASA has been one of the world’s great microfinance pioneers, promoters and innovators.

It isn’t every day you find a bank willing to do its bit for working women (and men) in the world’s oldest profession, so let’s hear a round of applause for HSBC. The British lender takes its commitment to corporate social responsibility seriously everywhere it operates. But it goes a step further in Bangladesh, where it focuses on sustainable finance and supply chains, and on improving wider financial literacy and general employability.

Founded in 1985 under the aegis of multilateral institutions including the Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development and the IFC, IDLC Finance really found its role in life in 2006, following the launch of its small and medium-sized enterprise business. Since then, it has become Bangladesh’s most influential provider of SME services. Outstanding loans to SMEs amounted to $415 million at the end of 2018, up from $350 million in the previous year. At the end of 2018, SME lending comprised 43% of its portfolio, against 21% a decade ago.

That Bangladesh as a country is managing to shed its image as a fintech laggard has much to do with a seminal decision made by Brac Bank in 2011. The lender boasts an impressive range of own-brand digital services.

Standard Chartered is hands down the best foreign bank operating in Bangladesh. It opened its first branch there in 1948, acquired ANZ Grindlays in 2000, and snapped up a commercial banking business from American Express five years later. It now boasts 24 branches and booths dotted around seven cities, employing 2,100 people and providing services ranging from credit cards and auto finance to personal loans and Islamic banking.

Six local and foreign bank chief executives nominated Eastern Bank for this award. No other names were offered up by the half dozen, and for good reason. Eastern Bank has for years been widely viewed as the best local provider of quality corporate banking services.

A new chief executive is busy rolling out a bold strategy to make it the country’s biggest lender, with the help of some of the savviest names in the business – bKash, Grameenphone and China’s Ant Financial Services.