Finance and Banking

Bangladesh Bank is the Central Bank which issues currency, maintains foreign exchange reserve and provides transaction facilities to all public fiscal issues. The bank has 10 branches all over the country. There are 119 Co-operative banks in country. Among these, 64 are Central Cooperative Banks, 48 are land-mortgage based Cooperative Banks and the rest are other Cooperative banks. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) directly supervises the Stock Exchange of Bangladesh. Established in 1993 the SEC is monitored by the Ministry of Finance. The governing body of SEC is appointed by the government. There are two Stock Exchanges in Bangladesh - Dhaka Stock Exchange and Chittagong Stock Exchange. Dhaka Stock Exchange is situated in Motijheel of Dhaka. It is a public limited company. The Chittagong Stock Exchange was established in 1995. It is the first automated and modern trading house of Bangladesh. The non-banking financial institutes are operated under the Financial Institutes Act of 1993. There are 29 such institutes in the country. Among these, one is state owned, 15 institutes are private owned and the remaining13 are established under both foreign and local participation. The Ministry of Commerce monitors the 62 insurance institutes. Among these 62, 14 are life insurance and the other 44 provide general insurance. One of them is owned by the government and one is owned by a foreign company. The rest are private and locally owned. There are several micro-finance banks in Bangladesh. They are regulated under the Micro-credit Regulatory Authority Act.