Dhaka Bank PLC aspires to become the country's top bank across all performance indicators within the next three years by bringing back its past glory riding on digital transformation.
To achieve the prime objective, the second-generation private commercial bank, which commenced its operation on July 05, 1995, has been investing in cutting-edge technology to deliver modern banking services while further empowering its customers.
Simultaneously, the lender also intensifies its cash recovery efforts to make the balance sheet further stronger.
Dhaka Bank Chairman Abdul Hai Sarker outlined the commercial bank's current and future priority areas in an exclusive interview with The Financial Express (FE) ahead of the lender's 31st founding anniversary to be celebrated today (Sunday).
He said Dhaka Bank has become a brand name in the country's banking industry through its customer services and remains firmly committed to further improving its standards in an increasingly competitive market.
According to him, the bank, somehow, slipped its dominating position due to various factors in the recent past, but they have taken a range of initiatives to regain its past glory and emerge as the country's top-performing bank.
"We plan to make it a top bank within the next two or three years. It has to be the number-one bank if I remain in charge of its operational board," he said.
He suggested that the central bank should allow banks to give a certain level of dividend to the shareholders considering the image of the bank.
He said Dhaka Bank posted a profit over Tk 11 billion. However, it declared only a 10 per cent dividend for shareholders, while other banks with the same range gave 20-30 per cent dividends, as they had to keep provisions against a backlog of classified loans.
A founding member of the bank, Mr. Sarker said he had never taken any benefits in any form from the bank in the history of its 31 years of operation.
"I will not extend loans to my friends because this is public money that I am dealing with. It is not my money. It's a very fundamental responsibility of a mediator who sits in between depositors and lenders," he said.
Mr. Sarker, also Chairman of the Bangladesh Association of Banks (BAB), said they have already stepped up their cash recovery efforts to further reduce the existing volume of non-performing loans (NPLs).
To this regard, he suggested that the government should strengthen its monitoring of the judicial system to speed up the resolution of loan-related cases.
The bank alone cannot tackle the NPL buildup unless the government enhances oversight of the judicial process, he said.
At the same time, he said, the bank is committed to continuous innovation by leveraging digital tools to make operations more effective and efficient and empower its customers further.
"There is no alternative to digitised banking services. So, this is our priority and we keep investing in it to become sustainable in this highly competitive market," he said.
The seasoned banker also requests his valued customers to change their mindset and adjust themselves to the evolving digitised banking services and keep faith in the bank like they did in the past.
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