Banking was once one of the most sought-after careers for Bangladesh’s brightest young people. For a large share of students of business administration and economics, becoming a banker was the dream. Good pay, social standing, financial security and prospects for career advancement put banking at the top of the list.

But crises at many of the country’s banks over the past decade have steadily eroded the sector’s appeal. Jobs at state-owned and private banks, as well as at foreign banks, no longer attract young people as they once did.

For several years, reports of irregularities and corruption, the spread of loan defaults, a governance deficit and financial collapse at the country’s banks have forced young people to reconsider their view of the profession. Top officials of many well-known banks have been jailed on allegations of involvement in irregularities.

Added to this are a lack of job security, concerns about working conditions and uncertainty over promotion and future careers. The media have from time to time reported the suicides of several bankers under pressure from “governance deficits, irregularities and corruption, and despair”.

Once, the brightest competed fiercely for jobs in the sector. People in the industry say that competition has waned. At the same time, more talented young people are going abroad.

Many private banks and their officers are in a precarious position. Employees of five Shariah-based banks that were plundered and then merged into Sammilito Islami Bank are struggling with uncertainty. Many staff have already left. Officers and employees at these banks, denied promotions and annual increments, are even forced to draw their salaries and allowances in several instalments each month. A similar situation exists at several other private banks.

Farmers Bank, a fourth-generation private bank, collapsed in 2016 amid irregularities and corruption, just four years after starting operations. Later renamed Padma Bank, it was licensed on political grounds and has been unable to turn itself around. Its employees say they have not been able to draw their salaries and allowances regularly for five to seven years as the bank faces bankruptcy.

Although jobs are secure at state-owned commercial and specialised banks, many officials spend their days frustrated by irregularities, corruption, loan defaults and the sector’s damaged reputation.

The most precarious situation is at Janata Bank and Basic Bank, both of which have suffered large-scale looting. Their non-performing loan ratios have reached 70 percent, while the average ratio across all state-owned banks is now above 47 percent.

Under the weight of high loan defaults, all eight other state-owned banks are now making losses, with Sonali Bank the sole exception. These banks also face a reputational crisis due to large capital shortfalls.

Jobs at the multinational banks Standard Chartered and HSBC were considered the most attractive and secure in the country’s banking sector. But recently, employment at both banks has also become uncertain for many staff.

In the middle of 2025, HSBC announced it would close its retail banking operations in Bangladesh. Many employees were subsequently sacked. At a press conference in the capital on July 4, 2026, aggrieved employees of the bank said the decision to close retail banking had led to 257 HSBC officers being sacked at once. Many of them had worked at the bank for 15 to 25 years.

Standard Chartered has followed in HSBC’s footsteps, announcing that it will sell its retail banking business in Bangladesh. The announcement has created uncertainty over the jobs and future employment of about 1,500 staff at the bank. The multinational has made it a condition of any sale that the prospective buyer take on these employees as well. Buyers’ objections to absorbing so many highly paid employees at once, as well as differences in salary structures, are delaying the talks. The issue has also caused frustration and resentment among officials at Standard Chartered Bangladesh.

Many believe jobs at Bangladesh Bank have also lost their former appeal. Under the previous regime, the central bank’s top leadership and numerous officials faced criticism for their direct and indirect roles in the collapse of the country’s banking sector.

Beyond personal irregularities and corruption, executives who held important and prestigious positions such as deputy governors are being jailed on charges of complicity in the looting of the financial sector. Many have fled the country after being named as accused.

In the past, many talented young people gave up teaching posts at public universities or BCS jobs to join Bangladesh Bank.

The central bank’s spokesman Arief Hossain Khan also believes that fewer talented people now aspire to become bankers.

“I was a student in the Department of Geography and Environment at Dhaka University. I ranked first in my postgraduate thesis group. At the time, I also had the chance to become a university teacher. But I joined the central bank. Many of my colleagues left government jobs, including university teaching and BCS cadre positions, to become central bankers,” he told Bonik Barta.

“Many talented students are still coming, but I think the number has fallen,” Khan said.

Many private banks in the country sack officers without giving proper reasons, he said, adding that sacking someone at 35 or 40, after they have passed the age limit for employment, is “inhuman”.

He added: “Those sacked when HSBC closed its retail banking operations received compensation. But many private banks are not paying proper compensation either. This situation may discourage talented people from becoming bankers.”

Bangladesh Bank figures show 217,818 officers and employees were working at 61 state-owned, private and foreign banks in the country as of June 2026. The largest share, 145,898, worked at 43 private banks. Another 55,517 were employed at the six state-owned commercial banks and 12,651 at three specialised state banks. The nine foreign banks had 3,752 staff. Women accounted for 16.51 percent of the total.

After Sheikh Hasina’s government fell on August 5, 2024, in the student-led mass uprising, the damage to the banking sector began to surface. The top executives of at least four banks, along with the chairmen, directors and officials of many banks, were arrested on charges of complicity in irregularities, corruption and the siphoning of money.

Among the bank executives in jail are Md Abdus Salam Azad, former managing director (MD) of Janata Bank; Obayed Ullah Masud, former MD of Sonali and Rupali banks; Monirul Moula, former MD of Islami Bank Bangladesh; and Feroz Hossain, former MD of Exim Bank. They are in jail as accused in cases filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC).

Beyond the top executives in jail, the ACC has already filed cases against a dozen more bank MDs. Investigations are underway and cases are being prepared against the top executives of another 10 to 12 banks.

Alongside the managing directors, many officials of the banks concerned have been named as accused in each case, including officials at various levels, from AMDs and DMDs to department heads and branch heads.

To avoid arrest and punishment, MDs and DMDs of several banks fled abroad after August 5, 2024. Some MDs who were sacked remain in the country but keep out of public view. Among the accused, those still working live in fear.

Given the scale of irregularities and corruption in the country’s banking sector, ACC officials say the number of cases could exceed 1,000. The number of accused could reach at least 20,000 because 15 to 20 officials are involved in each loan proposal and approval process. Bankers linked to loan fraud, bank chairmen and directors, and the relevant borrowers are being named as accused. In some banks, the number of cases filed against an MD could exceed 50.

Three governors who served during the decade and a half after 2009 have come under ACC investigation. Seven deputy governors from various periods, many executive directors and at least 55 officials have also been drawn into the investigation. Legal measures, including cases, investigations, asset seizures and summonses for documents, have been taken against them.

Among them, former Deputy Governor Sitangshu Kumar (SK) Sur Chowdhury and former head of the Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU) Masud Biswas, have been arrested. Of the former governors, Dr Atiur Rahman and Abdur Rouf Talukder are nowhere to be found. Many former deputy governors are also out of public view.

Syed Mahbubur Rahman, former chairman of the Association of Bankers, Bangladesh (ABB) and managing director of Mutual Trust Bank (MTB), believes there is no banker today who projects a positive image to talented young people.

“I myself qualified for the BCS administration cadre,” he told Bonik Barta. “But instead of joining that service, I chose to become a banker. At that time, we had many exemplary and respected bankers to look up to. Seeing them, we were inspired to become bankers. Salaries at private and foreign banks were also higher than those in government jobs.”

“News of irregularities and corruption in the banking sector, and of cases and arrests involving bankers, is discouraging talented people from entering the profession,” Rahman said.

He added: “Loans can become non-performing for various reasons. But we see cases being filed against bankers even over loans from 10 or 12 years ago. Such actions are discouraging bankers even more. Remember, if the state is controlled by a mafia or criminal elements, no individual or institution can remain unaffected, however much they may want to. What happened in various banks in the past was the result of a mafia-style system of state control.”

Non-performing loans at the end of June 2026 stood at BDT 6.06 trillion, according to central bank data. They accounted for 32.78 percent of disbursed loans, the highest share in the world. The situation resulted from irregularities, corruption and looting in the banking sector over the decade and a half after 2009.

At least two dozen banks are now loss-making because of the high default rate. They have lost capital and are in crisis. Even at banks that remain sound, recruitment of new staff is very low. Banking was once one of the country’s most attractive employers when demand for jobs was intense. Now the sector is losing its appeal and the number of jobs has shrunk.

The International Monetary Fund said recently that unemployment among highly educated young people in Bangladesh now stands at about 29 percent. Nearly half of workers with higher education are in jobs that do not make full use of their qualifications and skills.

Bdjobs co-founder and chief executive AKM Fahim Mashroor says frustration is growing among highly educated young people because suitable jobs are scarce. “New employment is not being created in the country to match their qualifications. Nor do they have the confidence that they will find good jobs abroad,” he told Bonik Barta.

Mashroor added: “Because there is no good alternative employment, talented young people in the country are still trying to become bankers. Many banks are at risk of bankruptcy, but the government has not allowed them to close. That too has kept many young people’s interest in banking alive.”