About two years ago, a young Bangladeshi named Akib Hossain (pseudonym) went to study at a well-known Australian university. The documents required for his visa included a bank statement and solvency certificate, which were arranged by an education consultancy in Gulshan.

For a student from a lower-middle-class family, showing a deposit balance of BDT 6 million was beyond his means. Through the consultancy’s intervention, BDT 300,000 was deposited in a second-generation Shariah-based bank in Bangladesh. The bank then issued a solvency certificate showing BDT 6 million, deducting BDT 220,000 from the deposit as a service fee.

Rafsan Ahmed made a similar journey last year to the United Kingdom. For his postgraduate course, Rafsan required a solvency certificate showing BDT 1.2 million. He never visited a bank. A student visa processing centre in Uttara arranged the certificate on his behalf for a fee of BDT 120,000.

Thousands of Bangladeshi students go abroad for higher education each year, many submitting such fraudulent bank statements and solvency certificates. Branch managers and bank staff are alleged to charge applicants anywhere between BDT 200,000 and BDT 500,000 to provide documents showing fictitious deposits of BDT 4 million to BDT 6 million, turning the fraud into a lucrative trade.

As student departures have grown, overseas education expenditure has escalated. Bangladesh Bank data show students spent $890 million in the 2025–26 fiscal year. At an exchange rate of BDT 123 to the dollar, this equals BDT 109.47 billion, matching the total allocation by the University Grants Commission for the country’s 57 public universities.

UNESCO figures place the number of Bangladeshi students abroad at 52,799 across 55 countries in 2023, up from 49,151 in 2022.

Julfikar Ali Jewel, president of the Foreign Admission & Career Development Consultants Association of Bangladesh (FACD-CAB), noted that regional peers such as India, Sri Lanka and Nepal maintain state-backed credit mechanisms for foreign study.

“The unfortunate reality is that Bangladeshi students have no comparable government support,” Jewel said. “As a result, students from lower- and middle-class families are being forced to resort to various unethical means to go abroad for higher education.”

Jewel denied that licensed consultancies possess authority to issue financial documents such as solvency certificates, pointing instead to direct advertising by bank officials on social media and calling for central bank intervention.

Interviews with students, consultancies, foreign embassies and senior financiers reveal an established parallel market. While sound institutions adhere to governance standards, weak lenders have commercialised certificate issuance. Several embassies now reject bank statements issued by specific institutions. Bonik Barta’s investigation has identified several banks involved in such practices.

A range of Facebook pages offer “fund support” and bank documentation. One agency, Holiday Heavens Tours & Travels, advertises financial backing for tourist and student visas, explicitly listing six Bangladeshi banks.

Other entities, including BD Bank Sponsor Support, offer custom statements across multiple lenders. When contacted, an agent named Sumon offered to arrange statements for any balance across 12 named banks, providing visiting cards and contact details for participating bank staff.

More than 100 such consultancies have sprung up in Bangladesh.

Diplomatic missions including those of the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Australia and various European countries have raised concerns over the practice, warning that document fraud and student non-attendance after arrival are undermining visa processing and driving up rejection rates.

Several embassies have lodged formal complaints with Bangladesh Bank, and on May 7, British High Commissioner Sarah Cooke met central bank governor Md Mostaqur Rahman when she raised the issue of fraudulent financial submissions.

Bangladesh Bank then issued a circular on May 12 mandating online-verifiable QR codes linking to five core data points on bank statements, solvency certificates and investment certificates, giving lenders 90 days to comply.

The measure, however, has done little to stem the practice, and implementation across the sector remains incomplete.

Banks have instead adopted new methods, creating loans in the names of prospective students or their guardians and presenting the loan proceeds as static deposits. Several institutions actively advertise these products, while social media platforms feature widespread promotion of financial solvency services.

The mechanics often rely on loan recycling. Bonik Barta spoke to senior executives and key officials at at least six banks about the practice. They revealed that a student’s initial deposit of BDT 500,000 is repeatedly leveraged as collateral for successive internal loans, artificially expanding the ledger balance to BDT 5 million or BDT 6 million. Bank staff retain control of the account, issue verified statements from the core banking system, and subsequently deduct fees and interest from the initial deposit once the visa process concludes.

Stagnant loan disbursements in recent years have driven lenders to seek alternative revenue, according to one insider.

Opening student files and issuing solvency certificates had become a major source of “cash income” with head-office approval, a branch manager at a fourth-generation bank said, adding: “If embassies send documents for verification, the head office provides authentication certificates.”

Bangladesh Bank spokesperson Arif Hossain Khan said issuing fraudulent bank statements was unethical and a criminal offence, warning that “if anyone issues fraudulent certificates to mislead foreign embassies, punitive action will certainly be taken against them”.

Khan added that while banks are commercial entities, legislation cannot cover every offence, making ethical conduct essential. The central bank plans to raise the matter at its next executive meeting.

Mashrur Arefin, chairman of the Association of Bankers, Bangladesh, described the issuance of unbacked financial certificates as “not merely unethical business”, but “an abuse of the credibility of the banking system”.

Arefin, who is also managing director of City Bank PLC, added that standalone QR codes were insufficient, advocating instead for a centralised digital verification gateway managed by Bangladesh Bank.

Mohammad Ali, managing director of Pubali Bank, said his institution offers two types of loan facilities for legitimate students going abroad, but noted that non-compliant applicants were damaging the country’s standing.

“In many cases, some students don’t continue their studies after going abroad and don’t stay in contact with the bank,” Ali said. “Bangladesh’s image is being damaged as a result.”

Diplomatic pressure continues to mount. Last year, 13 Western missions in Dhaka issued a joint warning that fraudulent submissions would result in visa refusals, long-term entry bans and legal prosecution.

Yet the prevalence of document fraud and subsequent immigration violations continues to affect national standing. Bangladesh currently ranks 97th on the global passport power rank, tied with North Korea.