Bangladesh Institute of Bank Management (BIBM) yesterday proposed plans to recover the country’s banking sector in post Covid-19 on a virtual workshop on Saturday. BIBM director general Md. Akhtaruzzaman chaired the workshop. In a paper titled ‘Economic, Monetary and Financial Sector Implications of Covid-19: Preparedness of Banks in Bangladesh’, BIBM Professor & Director (Training) Shah Md. Ahsan Habib laid out the recovery plans. The paper proposed banks taking measures for addressing contamination risk, preparing for probable infrastructural change through technology adaption, needing to assess credit portfolio and payment services, reviewing current and upcoming liquidity status, utilizing stimulus packages, financing for liquidity injection into the economy, maintaining transparency with the regulator, taking care of reputation risk and building trust and confidence. Experts also said that banks needed to strategize and be ready to face the upcoming banking challenges for their own and economic sustainability, which is adversely affected by the Covid-19. Mutual Trust Bank managing director and CEO Syed Mahbubur Rahman said the banking sector is vulnerable situation since the last few years. Now the sector is adversely affected by Covid-19. He also said that the central bank should revise the repo rate and cut the SLR again to boost liquidity in the market. Bangladesh Krishi Bank managing director and CEO Ali Hossain Prodhania said that we should more focus on SME and agricultural loans. “The implementation of the stimulus packages would not very difficult and we should take the risk as it is a crisis environment for economy and business,” he added. Trust Bank managing director Faruk Moinuddin said that the SME and medium enterprise sector are hugely affected by the pandemic and they should provide finance to the sector as a priority basis. BIBM Professor & Director Md. Mohiuddin Siddique said it is not the time for profit, rather the time to survive. Mutual Trust Bank former managing director Anis A Khan said banks have to rationalize their operational costs amid the crisis.
