Dhaka Bank charts a path towards stronger, smarter banking
With strong financial performance and growing customer trust, Dhaka Bank is strengthening its foundations while broadening its focus across SMEs, retail, agriculture and sustainable finance.
The next five years will be an important period for Bangladesh's banking sector. For Dhaka Bank, our ambition is clear: we want to become one of the country's leading private commercial banks—not simply by becoming larger, but by becoming stronger in performance, customer experience, resilience and long-term sustainability.
We enter this period from a position of strength. In 2025, our Profit Before Tax reached BDT 6,014 million, representing 74% year-on-year growth, while deposits increased by 13.1%. The growth in deposits is particularly meaningful because it came at a time when confidence in the broader banking sector was under pressure. For me, it reflects something more important than a financial number: the trust our customers continue to place in Dhaka Bank.
Our corporate banking franchise has been one of our defining strengths for many years. We have built deep relationships with businesses and institutions, particularly in corporate and trade banking. Going forward, however, our objective is to build a more balanced and diversified institution, with greater strength across corporate, SME, retail, agriculture and sustainable finance.
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This diversification is not about pursuing growth for its own sake. Sustainable growth requires discipline. We will continue to place strong emphasis on asset quality, capital strength and responsible lending. Our NPL ratio of 3.77% in 2025 reflects the importance we place on credit discipline. When we lend, we look beyond collateral to understand the strength of the underlying business, the quality of management, financial fundamentals and the ability to generate sustainable cash flows.
At the same time, we are transforming how customers experience the bank. Technology is becoming the foundation of our operations, but digital transformation, in our view, is not about launching more applications or platforms. It is about making banking genuinely simpler, faster and more convenient.
Whether a customer is opening an account, applying for a loan or carrying out an everyday transaction, we want the journey to involve fewer forms, fewer branch visits and significantly shorter processing times. Artificial intelligence and machine learning will increasingly support areas such as credit assessment, fraud detection and personalised financial solutions. Our Dhaka Bank Go Plus platform had more than 171,000 registered customers by the end of 2025, demonstrating the growing adoption of our digital channels.
SME finance is another area where technology can make a meaningful difference. Bangladesh's CMSME sector contributes around 30% of the economy, yet a large proportion of entrepreneurs remain outside formal bank financing. Through our e-Rin platform, we are digitising loan applications and assessments to make suitable SME financing faster and more accessible.
We are also using cash-flow analysis and alternative data to complement traditional credit assessment. Digital payment platforms such as Bangla QR and Dhaka Pay can help merchants establish transaction histories, allowing banks to better understand how businesses operate and potentially assess creditworthiness beyond conventional collateral requirements. Our long-term ambition is to help digitalise traditional markets across Bangladesh, one market at a time.
Our lending priorities are closely connected to the country's future competitiveness. We see opportunities in pharmaceuticals, IT, agrotech, advanced manufacturing and renewable energy, while the ready-made garment sector will remain central to Bangladesh's economy. However, the next phase of growth in garments should increasingly come from backward linkages, technical textiles and greater automation, allowing Bangladesh to capture more value across the industrial chain.
We also see a growing role for sustainable finance. Climate change and environmental risks have direct financial consequences, which is why we view climate risk as credit risk. In 2025, our green financing portfolio reached BDT 6,570 million, with BDT 5,800 million in green finance disbursements. We will continue looking for opportunities in clean energy, sustainable infrastructure, resource-efficient industries and climate-resilient agriculture.
Ultimately, however, a bank's success cannot be measured only by financial performance. It must also be measured by the opportunities it creates. That means financing businesses that create jobs, supporting entrepreneurs, reaching underserved communities and helping households and farmers participate more fully in the formal economy.
Our corporate banking franchise has been one of our defining strengths for many years. We have built deep relationships with businesses and institutions, particularly in corporate and trade banking.
Our 283 points of presence, combined with digital banking, give us an opportunity to bring financial services closer to customers across the country. Women entrepreneurs and young people are important parts of this effort, as are rural communities and agricultural businesses.
Trust will remain at the centre of everything we do. As banking becomes increasingly digital, cybersecurity, data protection and responsible use of technology become fundamental. We are strengthening our cyber resilience through continuous monitoring, threat detection, security assessments and AI-supported fraud monitoring, while investing in employee training and responsible use of AI.
I remain optimistic about Bangladesh's economic future. Our young population, growing middle class, entrepreneurial spirit, increasing digital adoption and movement towards higher-value production create significant opportunities for the financial sector.
For Dhaka Bank, the task now is to build on our foundation. We want to sustain credit discipline, accelerate digital integration, scale sustainable finance, deepen financial inclusion and strengthen governance. If we can combine the efficiency of technology with the judgement, experience and relationships that define good banking, we can build an institution that grows alongside Bangladesh—and creates lasting value for our customers, shareholders and the economy.
Financing the businesses shaping Bangladesh's future
Dhaka Bank is positioning itself to play a larger role in Bangladesh's next phase of economic development by directing financing towards sectors with the potential to create jobs, strengthen exports and improve the country's long-term competitiveness.
While corporate and trade banking remain important pillars of the institution, Dhaka Bank is steadily broadening its focus across SMEs, retail, agriculture, sustainable finance and emerging industries. Its lending priorities increasingly include pharmaceuticals, IT, agrotech, advanced manufacturing and renewable energy—sectors that are expected to become increasingly important as Bangladesh moves towards a more diversified economy.
The bank continues to support the ready-made garment industry, while encouraging the sector's evolution towards backward-linkage industries, technical textiles and greater automation. It has also financed projects across telecommunications, export-oriented manufacturing and infrastructure, providing businesses with working capital, trade finance and longer-term project financing.
Technology is emerging as another important part of this growth story. Through digital lending and payment platforms, Dhaka Bank is working to bring more small businesses into the formal financial system. Its e-Rin platform is designed to simplify SME loan applications, while Bangla QR and Dhaka Pay can help merchants build transaction histories that strengthen their financial profiles.
Sustainability is also becoming a larger part of the bank's portfolio. In 2025, its green financing portfolio reached Tk6,570 million, including BDT 5,800 million in green finance disbursements, supporting areas such as clean energy and resource-efficient industries.
Alongside this sectoral focus, Dhaka Bank is strengthening retail, agricultural and financial inclusion initiatives, including support for women-led businesses and young entrepreneurs.
Together, these efforts reflect a broader strategy: to move beyond traditional banking and become a financial partner to the businesses, entrepreneurs and communities driving Bangladesh's future growth.
