Commitment earns him success
HAD Anis A Khan joined civil service, as he passed the examination for a government job in 1982, Bangladesh's corporate sector would have missed a professional with distinctive leadership qualities. He is now 60 years old and has led two financial institutions -- Mutual Trust Bank and IDLC Finance -- as their chief executive for nearly 12 years.
Khan's ability to focus on a vision and to communicate his ideas with stakeholders -- including clients, employees and board of directors -- has brought him the success that many corporate professionals of his age did not dream of.
In his 33 years of banking career, he has witnessed how Bangladesh's private sector has grown from scratch. He has seen how small trading companies such as Akij, PHP, Abul Khair, Meghna, City, Square and Partex have become giant business groups.
“These entrepreneurs had a very humble beginning and have succeeded without much government support,” Khan told The Daily Star in a recent interview.
He said sincerity and devotion of the entrepreneurs and an active role of banks helped the private sector grow over the years.
“And these entrepreneurs were not loan defaulters,” said Khan, who has now been serving his second term as the CEO of Mutual Trust Bank, where his service may be extended for another term. Before joining the bank in April 2009, he served IDLC Finance, Bangladesh's largest non-bank financial institution, as its chief executive for two terms.
Khan also worked for then Grindlays Bank and its successors -- ANZ Grindlays and Standard Chartered -- both in Bangladesh and abroad.
Though Mutual Trust is a third generation private bank, his leadership gave the bank a strong foothold. During his stint, the bank saw steady business growth with less than 3 percent non-performing loans against the industry average of 11 percent.
Khan said, though Bangladesh's economy has been growing at around 6 percent for the past one decade, the country has the potential to see higher growth.
“Our people are hardworking and intelligent, especially the young generation.”
Khan said he visited around 50 countries where people leave office at 5pm and then pass time in pubs and clubs. But many people in Bangladesh work till night and again go to office the next morning.
Bangladesh has exploited only the apparel sector, but there are many other potential sectors such as leather and pharmaceuticals that, according to him, could generate huge foreign currencies.
The top banker also talked about the infrastructure bottlenecks. He is surprised to see that coal is not being explored; rather it is being imported by spending foreign currencies. “We have to use our own coal for power generation. People who will be affected must be rehabilitated properly,” Khan said.
He said foreign investors think twice before coming to Bangladesh due to poor infrastructure and political instability in the country. The next major bottleneck is scarcity of land, he said. “Investors from Thailand, Japan, Spain and Belgium were supposed to come to Bangladesh in January to discuss their investment plans, but they did not come because of political unrest,” said Khan, also the vice president of Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the country's premier trade body.
He said special economic zones are the solution to the shortage of land. “Many state-owned mills and factories that have been shut for years could be converted into economic zones,” he said.
While talking about the overall banking sector, he said lending rates have come down in line with the falling deposit rates.
Higher non-performing loans, excessive lending and soaring cost of funds are the major reasons why banks in Bangladesh cannot reduce lending rates to single digit, Khan said. "The good thing is that now banks are competing with each other to grab new clients or retain the older ones and that competition is giving borrowers an edge."
Khan said 2013 was "a horrible year" for banks, especially for primary dealers that were obliged to buy government bonds. But banks were completely liquid in 2014 as the government did not borrow much from the banking industry. He hailed the central bank for its prudent role in managing inflation and exchange rate and for healthy foreign exchange reserves.
The banker said small and medium enterprises are the country's engine of growth. His bank has been allocating more funds for SMEs every year to cash in on the growing potential of the sector. Mutual Trust has earmarked Tk 1,000 crore for SMEs for 2015, up from Tk 700 crore in the previous year.
Mutual Trust has recently been recognised as the 'best SME bank of the year 2014' by Bangladesh Bank and the SME Foundation. It has also been awarded as the 'best women entrepreneur-friendly bank of 2014'.
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