Pubali Bank emerges as potential buyer of StanChart's retail business
Standard Chartered's retail and CMSME loan portfolio stood at around Tk8,479 crore at the end of 2025, while retail deposits were around Tk8,000 crore.
Highlights:
- Pubali Bank emerges as a potential buyer of Standard Chartered's retail business.
- Standard Chartered has approached potential buyers, but no deal is finalised.
- Standard Chartered's retail and CMSME loans stood at Tk8,479 crore in 2025.
- Pubali has over 500 branches and 280 sub-branches nationwide.
- Any deal would require valuation, due diligence and regulatory approval.
Pubali Bank, one of the largest private commercial lenders, has emerged as a potential interested party in Standard Chartered Bank Bangladesh's retail banking business, alongside BRAC Bank and City Bank, as the British lender reportedly considers exiting retail banking to focus on corporate and institutional banking.
Standard Chartered has made preliminary approaches to potential buyers, although no deal structure or timeline has been finalised, according to people familiar with the matter.
Keep updated, follow The Business Standard's Google news channel
If a formal sale or transfer process begins, the portfolio would be subject to valuation, audit, due diligence, and regulatory approval.
Standard Chartered's retail and CMSME loan portfolio stood at around Tk8,479 crore at the end of 2025, while retail deposits were around Tk8,000 crore, according to the bank's financial information.
Why Pubali is being considered
Pubali Bank has been expanding its retail banking operations beyond traditional branch-based services, with greater emphasis on retail loans, cards, digital banking, QR payments and self-service banking.
The bank's Managing Director and CEO Mohammad Ali has also identified retail banking as one of its key areas of future growth.
Pubali currently has a retail loan portfolio of around Tk8,000 crore, accounting for more than 10% of its total loans. Its retail products include personal, home, car and nano loans.
Standard Chartered's retail business has a significant base of priority and high-value customers, including salary-account holders working for multinational and large corporate organisations, as well as longstanding retail banking customers.
Integrating such a portfolio with Pubali's existing retail operations could expand the bank's customer base in higher-value segments, according to a senior Pubali Bank executive.
Financial capacity
Pubali's balance sheet and financial indicators would also be relevant in assessing its ability to acquire a sizeable retail portfolio.
According to its published financial information for 2025, the bank had total assets of around Tk118,014 crore, deposits of Tk89,519 crore and loans and advances of about Tk71,141 crore.
The bank's profit after tax stood at around Tk1,080 crore in 2025, while its return on equity was 15.51%. Its non-performing loan ratio was 2.20% at the end of the year.
Pubali recorded around Tk685 crore in consolidated profit in the first six months of 2026.
These figures indicate the scale of Pubali's balance sheet relative to the retail portfolio under discussion. However, any acquisition would depend on the valuation, transaction structure, funding requirements and regulatory approvals.
Branch network and digital services
Pubali's nationwide branch network is another factor that could be relevant to a potential transaction.
Standard Chartered has a comparatively limited physical footprint in Bangladesh, with 18 branches, according to published information.
Pubali, in contrast, operates more than 500 branches and over 280 sub-branches across the country. The bank also inaugurated its 1,000th ATM/CRM booth in 2026.
A combination of Standard Chartered's largely urban and premium customer base with Pubali's broader physical network could expand access to branches, sub-branches and ATM/CRM facilities.
Pubali has also been investing in digital banking through its PI Banking platform, which offers services including NPSB, BEFTN, RTGS, transfers to mobile financial services, bill payments, credit card services and Bangla QR payments.
The PI Digital Platform had around 528,000 active users at the end of 2025 and processed more than 18.6 million transactions during the year.
Any transfer of Standard Chartered's retail business would involve more than loans and deposits. Customer accounts, cards, payment channels, digital banking services and customer data would also have to be migrated while ensuring continuity of service.
At this stage, however, no transaction involving Pubali Bank has been finalised.
