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Bangladesh Krishi Bank

autonomous · verified (verified 2026-05-17)

Profile

Head
Sanchia Binte Ali
Role
Managing Director
Annual budget
—
Staff
—
Established
1973
Legal basis
Bangladesh Krishi Bank Order, 1973 (President's Order No. 27 of 1973); currently operated under the Banking Companies Act, 1991

BKB holds the largest capital shortfall of any bank in Bangladesh at Tk 29,804 crore (September 2025), up from Tk 18,188 crore at end-2024; NPLs surged from Tk 4,329 crore (June 2024) to Tk 17,538 crore (June 2025) following reclassification under tightened BB norms; the interim government raised its authorised capital ceiling by Tk 3,500 crore in November 2024 but no direct recapitalisation has occurred; the bank is pursuing a Tk 10,318 crore zero-coupon bond to bridge the deficit; BKB ranked 2nd among all banks for remittance collection at the NRB World Conference 2026 ($3.13 billion in 2025) and 4th for FY2024-25; the government's Farmer's Card pre-pilot (April 2026, 22,065 farmers) is channelled through Sonali Bank, not BKB; BKB is critically short of its FY26 CMSME target with only 18.91% achieved as of November 2025.

Recent activity

Provenance & notes

BKB was established in 1973 under President's Order No. 27 of 1973 as successor to the former Agricultural Development Bank of Pakistan (est. 1961). It operates 1,029 branches across 48 districts; all branches are online as of latest BKB announcement. Chairman Dr Mohammad Zahid Hossain (former ADB Principal Economist, South Asia) joined October 20, 2024, appointed by the interim government following its August 2024 cancellation of previous board appointments. Managing Director Sanchia Binte Ali (former Sonali Bank DMD) is confirmed active in 2025 and early 2026 through multiple press reports; her exact appointment date was not recoverable from primary sources and head_since is set null rather than guessed. Staff count: not verifiable from 2024-25 primary sources; Banglapedia historical figure and banksbd.org directory counts are unreliable proxies and omitted. Capital shortfall trajectory: Tk 18,188 crore (end-2024) per Dhaka Tribune aggregate data; Tk 29,161 crore (June 2025) per Dhaka Tribune; Tk 29,804 crore (September 2025) per TBS — these are BB-reported figures and represent the largest individual-bank shortfall in Bangladesh as of Q3 2025. NPL figure: Tk 4,329 crore (June 2024) and Tk 17,538 crore (June 2025) sourced from Dhaka Tribune/TBS citing BB data; the four-fold surge reflects both reclassification under tightened March 2025 BB norms (default trigger reduced from 9 to 3 months) and unmasking of previously concealed defaults. Zero-coupon bond: Tk 10,318 crore at 4% yield, 10-year maturity, 10 equal redemption tranches; this was a BKB proposal — approval status not confirmed in sources reviewed. Farmer's Card: the April 2026 pre-pilot (22,065 farmers, 10 districts, Pahela Baishakh launch) is implemented through Sonali Bank PLC with Visa as technology partner; BKB is not a named disbursal partner in the pre-pilot phase — this is a key finding that contradicts common assumption. Remittance: BKB ranked 4th in FY2024-25 (Remittance Award-2025) and 2nd at NRB World Conference Series 2026 with $3.13 billion collected in 2025. BKB has been loss-making for over 30 years due to structural mandate (lend below market rate, borrow at deposit rate, carry high agri-sector NPLs). The bank's FY26 CMSME shortfall (18.91% of target as of November 2025) disqualifies it from BB incentive financing under that window.

Sources