Bangladesh Bank to become full autonomous body soon: Governor

Bangladesh Bank (BB) Governor Dr Ahsan H Mansur yesterday said the central bank will become full autonomous body soon as part of full-course reforms in the banking sector.

"The government has already taken decision to turn the central bank as a full autonomous body. We are taking preparation. We hope that the proposal to this end will be submitted before the Cabinet within two to four months," he said.

He said this while speaking virtually as the special guest at a session titled "Macroeconomic Policy and Governance in the Banking Sector" of a conference at the BRAC Centre Inn Auditorium in Dhaka.

Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) organised the two-day conference on "Recommendations by the Task Force on Re-Strategizing the Economy".

In his speech, Ahsan H Mansur said they want to transform the central bank into a completely autonomous institution that will not be influenced by government machinery.

"We want to reshape focus of the BB. We'll leave the activities that are not core central banking. We'll give utmost priority to issues linked with compliance, regulations and enforcement," he added.

He said a new law titled 'Bank Resolution Act' is being formulated to allow the Bangladesh Bank to legally apply corrective measures like mergers and acquisitions, liquidation, re-capitalisation and consolidation of the crisis-ridden banks.

"Under the act, it will be possible to take policy decisions for merger, acquisition, liquidation or recapitalisation of any bank," he added.