The latest chaos at Islami Bank Bangladesh PLC over the control of its operational board hit the Shariah-based bank hard, with it losing its supremacy in remittance netting to state-owned Bangladesh Krishi Bank (BKB).
The weeks-long recent agitation by a group of people, who claimed to be customers of the country's leading unconventional bank, triggered panic deposit withdrawals, which adversely weakened its liquidity situation, prompting the bank management to seek emergency liquidity support from the regulator.
During the crisis, the regulator has so far provided Tk 130 billion to ease the bank's liquidity pressure, according to Bangladesh Bank (BB) sources.
As a matter of fact, remittance sourcing, which is one of the strengths of the bank, has become severely disturbed, which is reflected in the latest June-end remittance data released by the central bank on Thursday.
Islami Bank dropped to the second position as BKB, which intensified its remittance-collecting drives in recent months, took the lead for the first time in its history.
BKB received $441.68 million in remittances during June 2026 to secure the top position, while Islami Bank collected $349.29 million, according to the official data.
"We will strive to maintain the current momentum in inward remittance inflows in the coming months," Mohammed Nurul Amin, chairman of BKB, told The Financial Express.
Agrani Bank PLC, another state-owned commercial bank, ranked third after collecting $325.80 million in remittances during the same period.
Talking to The Financial Express, Md Altaf Hossain, acting managing director of Islami Bank, said the bank's remittance collection declined in June mainly due to cash-flow disruptions caused by the recent movement.
The massive movement began early last month when the central bank appointed its former deputy governor Md Khurshid Alam as the bank's chairman.
Later, the banking regulator backtracked and cancelled the controversial appointment amid the protest.
Islami Bank's remittance collection dropped more than 69 per cent to $349.29 million in June 2026 from $592.06 million a month before, the central bank data shows.
Expressing optimism, Mr Hossain said the bank had already implemented a number of initiatives and expected to reclaim its top position in remittance collection in July.
Meanwhile, the country's flow of inward remittances dropped by more than 22 per cent to $2.82 billion in June this year from $3.44 billion a month ago because of Eid-ul-Azha celebrated in May.
With the June count, Bangladesh received record remittances of $35.59 billion in FY26, which was more than 17 per cent higher from the previous fiscal year's figure of $30.33 billion.
Due to the quantum leap in remittance inflow, gross foreign exchange reserve of the over $500 billion economy rose to $37.56 billion by the end of the just-concluded financial year.
In terms of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) arithmetic, the gross international reserve (GIR) size reached $32.90 billion during the same period.
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