The number of personal bank accounts holding over BDT 10 million jumped by more than a fifth during the 18-month tenure of Bangladesh’s former interim government even as economic stagnation deepened and poverty rose, central bank data show.
In September 2024, weeks after the administration led by Dr Muhammad Yunus took charge, Bangladesh Bank recorded 33,629 individual accounts with balances of BDT 10 million or above. By March 2026, that figure had climbed 21 percent to 40,645.
The interim government was sworn in on August 8, 2024, three days after a mass student-led uprising ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. It stepped down on February 17, 2026 following the 13th parliamentary election on February 12.
Financial analysts described the surge as an anomaly given the macroeconomic backdrop. Business activity remained stagnant throughout the interim period, with high inflation and an economic slowdown driving up poverty rates. The oligarchs and political enforcers linked to the Awami League’s 15-year rule also fled the country after the regime fell. Yet high-value individual accounts still expanded by one-fifth over the period.
A central bank official told Bonik Barta anonymously: “Control over everything from markets, public spaces and roads to extortion rackets shifted to a new class of power brokers after the mass uprising. Centres of influence also shifted across politics and the administrative system. Those developments may help explain such a sharp rise in high-value account numbers.”
A police report from September 2025 pointed in the same direction. It revealed that 57 percent of individuals arrested for extortion and land-grabbing had no prior criminal records for those offences, indicating a wave of first-time offenders entering illicit markets during the transition.
Detailed central bank data show the 20.86 percent increase in accounts holding over BDT 10 million far outstripped total account growth across the banking system. The banking system recorded roughly one additional high-value account for every five existing ones during the interim administration.
Dr Salehuddin Ahmed, the interim government’s finance adviser and a former central bank governor, offered several explanations for the trend. He told Bonik Barta: “The true state of the banking sector came to light after we assumed office. Boards of several poorly governed banks were dissolved. Depositors responded with mass withdrawals, liquidating fixed deposits to transfer capital to healthier institutions — a flight to safety that drove up the number of accounts holding BDT 10 million or more. Subdued business transactions may also have contributed. Furthermore, intensified enforcement by the National Board of Revenue, the Anti-Corruption Commission and other agencies likely discouraged cash hoarding, driving funds into the banking system.”
Addressing whether groups that gained influence after the political upheaval had rapidly accumulated wealth, the former finance adviser acknowledged that “some of that may be true.” Control of commerce and extortion rackets long held by Awami League loyalists changed hands after the uprising, he said, establishing a new commercial class whose deposits boosted the high-value account total.
Central bank data, however, do not support the argument that households were simply depositing hoarded cash. Currency held outside the banking system rose from BDT 2.83 trillion in September 2024 to BDT 3.03 trillion by March 2026, indicating an overall expansion of cash in circulation during the interim administration’s 18 months in office.
Total deposits held in personal accounts of BDT 10 million or more grew from BDT 872 billion in September 2024 to BDT 914 billion in March 2026, according to the central bank’s quarterly Banking Sector Update released last Thursday.
Senior commercial bankers noted that established high-net-worth individuals rarely hold BDT 10 million in a single account. Instead, they typically split funds into smaller fixed deposits of BDT 500,000 to BDT 1 million across multiple lenders, deploy capital into real estate, or transfer funds offshore. Many avoid formal banking channels entirely to evade tax and regulatory scrutiny. Analysts argue that a sudden concentration of high-value accounts suggests these new depositors acquired large sums rapidly and deposited them without structural planning.
This accumulation coincided with a systemic overhaul of bank governance. The former interim administration dissolved the boards of 16 private lenders and replaced senior leadership at more than a dozen others, while restructuring the chairmanships and executive suites of state-owned banks. Concurrently, private sector credit growth fell below 5 percent to a historic low as risk-averse lenders redirected capital from corporate loans into government treasury bills and bonds.
Dr Toufic Ahmad Choudhury, former director general of the Bangladesh Institute of Bank Management, said political transitions routinely generate new financial elites. “The country saw its first change in the ruling party and the centre of political power in a decade and a half. An entirely new group of people then came to power, many of whom have since entered business. That shift can’t be dismissed as a possible factor behind the sharp increase in the number of bank accounts holding at least BDT 10 million.”
Choudhury added that widespread sector fragility also reallocated capital: “Several weak lenders were exposed following the Awami League government’s fall. Panicked depositors then moved funds to banks with stronger reputations. That may have also contributed to the increase in high-value accounts.”
Arif Hossain Khan, executive director and spokesman for Bangladesh Bank, said the central bank had implemented comprehensive oversight measures post-uprising. “Banks remain under rigorous inspection. Any irregularity is met with immediate action,” he said. “High-value accounts may expand in line with broader economic movements. We will investigate if illicit funds are involved.”
Syed Emran Saleh Prince, joint secretary general of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, called for an official inquiry into the figures. “If these central bank data are accurate, they warrant immediate, dispassionate investigation by both the administration and the Bangladesh Bank.”