In the early years of Bangladesh, discount rate, reserve ratio and moral suasion (known as open mouth operation) were important to control money supply. With the introduction ti Financial Sector Reform Program in 1990, the Bangladesh Bank almost closed both the refinance and rediscount window with a view to developing inter-bank market . Nevertheless the central bank kept the discount rate between 5-8 percent. Any bank that needed finance started approaching the inter -bank market instead of Bangladesh Bank’s window’s; thereby.
Discount rate policy, though internationally, lost its credibility. There is no denying the fact that the financial system plays a significant role in the economic development of a country. The importance of an efficient financial sector lies in the fact that, it ensures domestic resources mobilization, generation of savings, and investments in productive sectors. In fact, it is the system by which a country’s most profitable and efficient projects are systematically and continuously directed to the most productive sources of future growth.
The financial system not only transfers funds from savers to investors: it must be able to select projects which will yield the highest returns, accumulate sufficient quantities of capital to fund the range of investment projects across economic activities, account for price risks across assets, monitor performance, and enforce contracts. The larger the financial sector in the context of the overall economy, the greater the share of lending by depository rather than central banks, and the greater the share of credit to private sector rather than public sector, the greater is the rate of economic growth.
Financial sector in Bangladesh, like most in developing countries, is leaded by banking institutions. With recent gains in financial fronts Bangladesh’s financial sector is now comparable with most of the countries in South and East Asia in terms of financial deepening (measured by broad money to GDP ratio). Bangladesh, like other developing countries, still has an underdeveloped financial system and is facing serious problems with the operation of its financial system and poor financial intermediation presents significant disincentives to faster economic growth.
Given the very low levels of both domestic and national savings, and together with population growth, Bangladesh needs more resources for investment. Thus, financial development is a prerequisite for economic growth. There is broad agreement that the establishment of a competitive efficient and transparent financial system will result in higher economic growth and create employment opportunities. Therefore, evolution of a sound and well-integrated financial system through appropriate policy stances in the monetary and banking arena is essential to facilitate the economic development of any country.
Background of financial market in Bangladesh: The financial system in Bangladesh includes Bangladesh Bank (the Central Bank),scheduled banks, non-bank financial institutions, Microfinance institutions (MFIs),insurance companies, co-operative banks, credit rating agencies and stock exchange. Among scheduled banks there are 4 Nationalized commercial banks (NCBs), 5 state-owned specialized banks (SBs), 30 domestic private commercial banks (PCBs), 9foreign commercial banks (FCBs) and 29 non-bank financial institutions (NBFIs) as of December 2006 after that total number of institutions are increasing rapidly.
However, Rupali Bank, an NCB is being sold to a foreign buyer, and once this transaction is completed, the country will have only 3 NCBs. , which are being corporative. Over and above the institutions cited above, three development financial institutions namely House Building Finance Corporation (HBFC), Ansar-VDP UnnayanBank and Karma Shangsthan Bank are operating in Bangladesh, all of which are state owned. The financial system of Bangladesh is mainly bank dependent.
Though in the recent years, a number of non-banking financial institutions (leasing and merchant banks) have been established, yet the banking sector still captures the lion share of the financial market. Financial Sectors in Bangladesh: Bangladesh Bank is the key player for the financial sector of Bangladesh as well as for the economy. Bangladesh Bank is the banker to the government as well as to other banks. It formulates and implements monetary policy, manages foreign exchange reserve and is the authority to supervise and regulate other banks and non-bank financial institutions.
The financial sector of Bangladesh has gone through a lot of reforms in the past two decades and central bank reform was a key element of the reform agenda. This study maps the various reforms that have taken place so far. Bangladesh Bank has improved in certain areas and yet there are avenues where more can be done. The bank plays a dual role in the economy. Bangladesh Bank supervises and regulates the country’s banking sector where it has significant improvements. On the other hand, the bank underachieves in terms of autonomous formulation and implementation of monetary policy in coordination with the government.
The Main Types of Financial Markets: As the number of people trading the financial markets has grown so has the type of markets you can trade. For a financial market to exist, there must be more than a single buyer or seller. It has been suggested that two people may trade, but it takes at least three persons to have a market, so that there is competition on at least one of its two sides. Let’s take a look a closer look at the different types of financial markets. The Foreign Exchange Market: (also known as Forex or FX) is the most liquid of the financial markets.
Each country has its own national currency and each national currency has a value in relation to another national currency. So whilst a British Pound might be worth 1 Dollar and 60 cents in United States Dollars, it might also be worth 130 Yen in Japanese Yen. These values fluctuate all the time and one currency can be bought or sold against the other, depending on how you think their relative values will change in the future. The Stock Market: Once a company reaches a certain size it can offer shared ownership to private investors in the form of ‘Shares’.
These are bought and sold in the Stock Market, through a small number of established Stock Exchanges, where each company is given a symbol (or ‘stock ticker’), such as GOOG (for Google) or AAPL (for Apple Computers). Some of the major stock exchanges include the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), the American Stock Exchange (AMEX) the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE). If you have confidence in the value of a company increasing over to time, you may want to buy some shares in that company.
Likewise if you think the value will decrease you may wish to sell shares. The Commodities Market: Commodities are generally raw physical products such as grains, metals or oil, which can be bought and sold in standardized ‘lots’, depending on a person’s outlook on the value of that commodity. They are traded through a commodities exchange such as the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) or the London Metal Exchange (LME). The Futures Market: Trading Futures is a way of securing an asset at today’s prices, but not actually taking ownership of it until a future date.
Transactions are conducted by way of contracts, traded on a Futures Exchange, such as the NYSE Euronext exchange or the InterContinental Exchange (ICE Futures Europe). There are several other types of financial markets including the Money Markets (for short term borrowing and lending), Insurance markets (for protecting against risks), Bond Markets (which provide financing through bonds), Derivatives Markets (for Futures Contracts and Options), and so on, but many of these markets can be too complicated for beginner traders to need to worry about.
We would suggest that the four main types outlined in this section above will provide more than enough scope to build your experience. They are also listed in order of our view of their relative complexity, so we would suggest Foreign exchange as the easiest place to start, followed by Stocks, then Commodities, and then Futures as you become more advanced and confident in your trading. Financial market Financial market is created to satisfy particular preferences of market participants.
Financial markets transfer funds from those who have excess funs to those who need funds. That is they facilitate the transfer of funds from surplus unit to deficit unit. Because funding needs vary among deficit units, various financial markets have been established. The primary market allows for the issuance of new securities, while the secondary market allows for the sale of short term securities, while capital markets facilitate the sale of long term securities. The main participants of financial market can
be classified as households, businesses and government agencies. Those participants who provide funds to the financial markets are called surplus unit. Households are the main type of surplus unit. Participants who use financial markets to obtain the funds are called the deficit unit. Financial market can be classified into two categories they are given below- 1. Money market 2. Capital market Money market: Money market an integral part of the financial market of a country.
It provides a medium for the redistribution of short term loan able funds among financial institutions, which perform this function by selling deposits of various types, certificate of deposits and discounting of bills, treasury bills etc. The participants in the money market are: the central bank, commercial banks, the government, finance companies, contractual saving institutions like the pension funds, insurance companies, savings and loan associations etc.
The instruments that are generally traded in the money market constitute: treasury bills, short-term central bank and government bonds, negotiable certificates of deposits, bankers acceptances and commercial papers like the bills of exchange and promissory notes, mutual funds etc. The money market in Bangladesh is in its transitional stage. The various constituent parts of it are in the process of formation, while continuous efforts are being made to develop appropriate and adequate instruments to be traded in the market.
At present, government treasury bills of varying maturity, Bangladesh Bank Bills and Certificates of Deposits etc in limited supply are available for trading in the market. However, the short-term credit market of the banking sector experienced a tremendous growth since liberation. In 1999,a total of about 6000 branches of the scheduled banks provided short-term credit throughout the country in the form of cash credit, overdraft and demand loan. The rates of interest are determined by the individual banks and as such the market is quite competitive.
Each bank maintains its liquidity and supply of fund is arranged throughout the country with the help of an interconnected network of branches. Bangladesh bank as central bank of the country exercises its role in this market through the use of instruments such as bank rate, open market operations and changes in statutory liquidity requirements. The money market of Bangladesh reached its present phase through a series of changes and evolution. Initially, after liberation, money market was the major constituent part of the financial market of the country.
Capital market, its other segment was a relatively smaller part. All financial institutions of the country were nationalized after liberation. The growth and evolution of money market in the country took place during the period from 1971 to the early eighties under various sets of interventionist rules and regulations of the government and as such it could hardly reflect the actual market conditions. However, in this period a vast financial superstructure with large network of commercial bank branches was established in the country.
Simultaneously, specialized financial institutions under government sector also emerged with the objective of mobilizing financial resources and channeling them for short, medium and long-term credit and investments. The market participants had to operate in an environment of directed lending and loan disbursement goals, and predetermined rates of interest fixed by the authority. However, rate of interest in the call market was flexible but due to prevalence of liberal refinance facility at concessional rates from Bangladesh Bank, the activities of call money market remained insignificant.
Market of the banking sector experienced a tremendous growth since liberation. In 1999, a total of about 6000 branches of the scheduled banks provided short-term credit throughout the country in the form of cash credit, overdraft and demand loan. The rates of interest are determined by the individual banks and as such the market is quite competitive. Each bank maintains its liquidity and supply of fund is arranged throughout the country with the help of an interconnected network of branches.
Bangladesh bank as central bank of the country exercises its role in this market through the use of instruments such as bank rate, open market operations and changes in statutory liquidity requirements. The money market of Bangladesh reached its present phase through a series of changes and evolution. Initially, after liberation, money market was the major constituent part of the financial market of the country. Capital market, its other segment was a relatively smaller part. All financial institutions of the country were nationalized after liberation.
The growth and Evolution of money market in the country took place during the period from 1971 to the early eighties under various sets of interventionist rules and regulations of the government and as such it could hardly reflect the actual market conditions. However, in this period a vast financial superstructure with large network of commercial bank branches was established in the country. Simultaneously, specialized financial institutions under government sector also emerged with the objective of mobilizing financial resources and channeling them for short, medium and long-term credit and investments.
The market participants had to operate in an environment of directed lending and loan disbursement goals, and predetermined rates of interest fixed by the authority. However, rate of interest in the call market was flexible but due to prevalence of liberal refinance facility at concessional rates from Bangladesh Bank, the activities of call money market remained insignificant. Capital market: Capital Market the market, or realistically, the group of interrelated markets, in which capital in financial form is lent or borrowed for medium and long term and, in cases such as equities, for unspecified periods.
The capital markets, in distinction from other parts of the financial market that is, the money markets, are those for long-term government securities, corporate bonds, stocks, municipal bonds issued by state and local government units, and mortgages. Industry and commerce as well as government and local authorities raise capital from the capital market which performs several important functions in the process of economic development. Most important among them are the promotion of savings and investment and efficient allocation of funds among competing uses.
Participants in the capital markets are many. They include the commercial banks, saving and loan associations, credit unions, mutual saving banks, finance houses, finance companies, merchant bankers, discount houses, venture capital companies, leasing companies, investment banks, investment companies, investment clubs, pension funds, stock exchanges, security companies, underwriters, portfolio-managers, and insurance companies. The growth of capital market in Bangladesh was very slow because of the highly regulated economic regime and market imperfections.
Long-term funds required by industrial enterprises were generally provided by government-owned development finance institutions (DFIs) at concessional and directed interest rates. The DFIs are the Bangladesh Shilpa Bank, Bangladesh Shilpa Rin Sangstha, Bangladesh Krishi Bank and the rajshahi krishi unnayan bank. The Bangladesh Small & Cottage Industries Corporation (BSIC) is another institution that provides medium and long-term loans to small industries either directly or through a consortium of commercial banks. Bangladesh house building Finance Corporation provides long-term loans for construction of residential houses.
DFIs generate their investible funds through allocations from government sources, credit from international financial institutions, and borrowings from the Bangladesh bank. Co-operative banks in the country provide medium and long-term credit for purchase of land and agricultural equipment. Role financial market in economic development: Role of depository institutions: A major type of financial intermediary is the depository institutions, which accepts deposits from surplus units and provides credit to deficit units through loans and purchases of securities.
Depository institutions are popular financial institutions for the following reasons:
- They offer deposit accounts that can accommodate the amount and liquidity characteristics desired by most surplus units.
- They repackage funds received from deposits to provide loans of the size and maturity desired by the deficit units.
- They accept the risk on loan provided.
- They have more expertise than individual surplus units in evaluating the creditworthiness of deficit units.
- They diversify their loans among numerous deficit units and therefore can absorb defaulted loans better than individual surplus units could.
The depository institutions and their roles are given below: Bank: The financial system of Bangladesh consists of Bangladesh Bank (BB), the central bank, 4 nationalized commercial banks (NCB), 5 government owned specialized banks, 30 domestic private banks, 10 foreign banks and 28 non-bank financial institutions. The financial system also includes insurance companies, stock exchanges and co-operative banks. As the central bank, Bangladesh Bank has legal authority to supervise and regulate all the banks.
Although the financial system includes other players like insurance companies, stock exchanges and co-operative banks, but Bangladesh Bank doesn’t emulate these institutions. Each of the institution is regulated by different authorities. The insurance companies are regulated by Ministry of Commerce; Stock exchanges are regulated by Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Cooperative banks are regulated by Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Co-operatives. Financial markets allow the transformation of claims on multi-year illiquid investment projects into liquid tradable securities.
Financial institutions acquire and process information about investment projects on behalf of their depositors, while prices in financial markets reflect different information and opinions on new ideas and projects. While market participants have developed techniques to overcome market frictions, the government has an active role to play in providing the “infrastructure” for financial service provision, i. e. the rules within which firms and household contract with each other and perform financial transactions. Banks| Bangladesh Banks|
The banking system at independence consisted of two branch offices of the former State Bank of Pakistan and seventeen large commercial banks, two of which were controlled by Bangladeshi interests and three by foreigners other than West Pakistanis. There were fourteen smaller commercial banks. Virtually all banking services were concentrated in urban areas. The newly independent government immediately designated the Dhaka branch of the State Bank of Pakistan as the central bank and renamed it the Bangladesh Bank.
The bank was responsible for regulating currency, controlling credit and monetary policy, and administering exchange control and the official foreign exchange reserves. The Bangladesh government initially nationalized the entire domestic banking system and proceeded to reorganize and rename the various banks. Foreign-owned banks were permitted to continue doing business in Bangladesh. The insurance business was also nationalized and became a source of potential investment funds. Cooperative credit systems and postal savings offices handled service to small individual and rural accounts.
The new banking system succeeded in establishing reasonably efficient procedures for managing credit and foreign exchange. The primary function of the credit system throughout the 1970s was to finance trade and the public sector, which together absorbed75 percent of total advances. The government’s encouragement during the late 1970s and early 1980s of agricultural development and private industry brought changes in lending strategies. Managed by the Bangladesh Krishi Bank, a specialized agricultural banking institution, lending to farmers and fishermen dramatically expanded.
The number of rural bank branches doubled between 1977 and 1985, to more than 3,330. Denationalization and private industrial growth led the Bangladesh Bank and the World Bank to focus their lending on the emerging private manufacturing sector. Scheduled bank advances to private agriculture, as a percentage of sect oral GDP, rose from 2 percent in FY 1979 to 11 percent in FY1987, while advances to private manufacturing rose from 13 percent to 53 percent. List of banks in Bangladesh: The commercial banking system dominates Bangladesh’s financial sector.
Bangladesh Bank is the Central Bank of Bangladesh and the chief regulatory authority in the sector. The banking system consists of four nationalized commercial Banks, around forty private commercial banks, nine foreign multinational banks and some specialized banks. The Nobel-prize winning Grameen Bank is a specialized micro-finance institution, which revolutionized the concept of micro-credit and contributed greatly towards poverty reduction and the empowerment of women in Bangladesh.
Roles of the Regulatory institutions in the Capital Market of Bangladesh: In order to stimulate rapid economic growth of a country particularly through industrialization and mobilization of domestic savings, appropriate institutions in the capital market are essential. The capital market in Bangladesh is governed by the following institutions. The Security and Exchange Commission (SEC): Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) was formed to supervise the securities market of Bangladesh in June 09, 1993. SEC is a dynamic body regulating the activities of capital market on the basis of introducing regulatory measures from time to time.
Thus insurance companies provide insurance policies to individuals and firms that reduce the financial burden associated with death, illness and damages to property. They charges premiums in exchange for the insurance that they provide. They invest the funds that are received as premium in different sectors until the funds are needed to cover the insurance claims. Thus through investing the funds in different sectors, they serve as important financial intermediaries.
Insurance is not a new business in Bangladesh. Almost a century back, during British rule in India, some insurance companies started transacting business, both life and general, in Bengal. Insurance business gained momentum in East Pakistan during 1947-1971, when49 insurance companies transacted both life and general insurance schemes. But after the liberation, the government of Bangladesh nationalized insurance industry in 1972 by the Bangladesh Insurance (Nationalization) Order 1972.
Through this process all 49insurance companies and organizations transacting insurance business in the country were placed in the public sector under five corporations. These corporations were: theJatiya Bima Corporation, Tista Bima Corporation, Karnafuli Bima Corporation, Rupsa Jiban Bima Corporation, and Surma Jiban Bima Corporation. The Jatiya Bima Corporation was an apex corporation only to supervise and control the activities of theother insurance corporations, which were responsible for underwriting. Tista and Karnafuli Bima Corporations were for general insurance and Rupsa and Surma for life insurance.
The specialist life companies or the life portion of a composite company joined the Rupsa and Surma corporations while specialist general insurance companies or the general portion of a composite company joined the Tista and Karnafuli corporations. Consequently, on 14 May 1973, a restructuring was made under the Insurance Corporations Act 1973. Following the Act, in place of five corporations the government formed two: the Sadharan Bima Corporation for general business, and Jiban Bima Corporation for life business.
Up to 2000, the government has given permission to 19 general insurance companies and 10 life insurance companies in the private sector. Insurers of the country now conduct almost all types of general and life insurance, except crop insurance and export credit guarantee insurance, which are available only with the Sadharan Bima Corporation.
Some of the insurance companies that are working in Bangladesh are:
- General Insurance Company
- National Insurance Company
- Bangladesh Co-operative Insurance Ltd.
- American Life Insurance Company Ltd. (ALICO)
- United Insurance Company etc.
Lease Financing Lease is a contract between the owner and the user of assets for a certain time period during which the second party uses an asset in exchange of making periodic rental payments to the first party without purchasing it. Under lease financing, the lessee regularly pays the fixed lease rent over a period of time at the beginning or at the end of a month, 3 months, 6 months or a year. At the end of the lease contract the asset reverts to be real owner. Legally, a leasing company is defined as one having the business of hiring plants or equipment or of financing their hire by others.
The International Finance Corporation promotes leasing as a method of financing industrial development in the developing countries as a part of its capital market development strategies. The functions of a lease business include lease financing, short-term financing, house building financing, and merchant banking and corporate financing. The leasing business in Bangladesh moved away from regular leasing activities and is now involved in stock-market related activities such as issue management, underwriting, trust management, private placement, portfolio management, and mutual fund operation.
Broad capital market operations of the lease financing institutions include bridge financing, corporate counseling, mergers and acquisition, capital restructuring, financial engineering, and lease syndication.
The leasing companies now operating in the country are:
- Industrial Development Leasing Company of Bangladesh
- United Leasing Company
- GSP Finance Company (Bangladesh)
- Uttara Finance and Investments
- Bay Leasing and Investment
- Phoenix Leasing Company
- Prime Finance and Investment
- International Leasing and Financial Services
- Union Capital
- Vanik Bangladesh
- Peoples Leasing and Financial Services
- Bangladesh Industrial Finance Company
- UAE-Bangladesh Investment Company
- Bangladesh Finance and Investment Company
- First Lease International.
There is no doubt that financial market play a vital rule in economic development of our country. As Bangladeshis economy is expanding our policy makers are confronting with different challenges which require extensive strategic analysis to choose between different courses of action.
Although our current contribution in financial market is not in a suitable state to support infrastructure financing but this market is gradually maturing and has the potential to address the current financing constraint. But to reach that level our regulators need to act now to prepare for the future. With the experience of other successful around the world, gradual regulatory reform and institutional development can help this market to move towards a mature financial market with different types of instruments available tailored for different stages of project financing risk diversification.
Financial sector reforms can play a vital role to bring financial system stability and Transparency and is undoubtedly one of the crucial prerequisites for embarking upon a path of sustained economic growth. Financial system in Bangladesh faces enormous problems and poor financial intermediation presents significant disincentives to foster economic growth. A well designed financial sector reform program can address the issues. The pro-active measures taken in the financial sector in recent years have put salutary impact on the financial system.
The on-going reform process in the financial system of Bangladesh will bring stability and transparency. In this regard, proper care should be taken in the reform process so that reforms in the financial sector embrace the socio- economic realities in Bangladesh. Reforms of any sort may be in the financial sector or in any other sectors of the economy is a continuous process and cannot be bound by any time frame. For successful implementation of financial sector reforms an independent central bank as well as a sound overall macroeconomic stability is a necessity.
Financial liberalization is an extremely important component of a successful development strategy. If financial deregulation is implemented in isolation, it is unlikely to promote growth and may, in fact, impede economic development. The importance of achieving macroeconomic stability prior to reform is well known, yet structural reform and institutional development in the financial sector, especially prudential financial supervision are equally essential as liberalization proceeds.
