or
or
Importance of Good Governance in Banks
Good governance is an indeterminate (অনির্দিষ্ট) term used in the international development literal to describe(বর্ণনা করা) how public institutions conduct public affairs and manage public resources Governance is "the process of decision-making and the process by which decisions are implemen (or not implemented)". Good governance in the banking sector is an important agenda of our country, especially in present context of the crisis the banking sector. Transparency and accountability have recently become an issue of greater concern with revitalized importance in the context of public and private responsibility of managing banks. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has defined transparency as "an environment in which the objectives of policy, its legal, institutional (effeife) and economic framework, policy decisions (fres: ana) and their rationale, data and information related to monetary and financial policies, and in terms of agencies' accountability, are provided to the public on an understandable, accessible and timely basis" (IMF-1999). Transparency in government operations is an important pre- condition for macro-economic fiscal sustainability good governance, and overall fiscal discipline. Accountability, in the words of Messenger (1970). "is the product of a process which means that an agent, public or private, entering into a contractual agreement to perform a service will be held answerable to perform according to agreed upon terms, within an established time period and with stipulated use of resources and performance standard." Transparency is necessary to ensure accountability among the major group of participants in financial markets; borrowers and lenders; issuers and investors, and national authorities and international financial institutions. Transparency and accountability are mutually reinforcing. Transparency enhances accountability by facilitating monitoring and accountability enhances transparency by providing an incentive for agents to ensure that the reasons for their actions are properly disseminated and understood. A perfect example is the Hallmark scandal of the state-owned Sonali Bank Ltd. which occurred due to the lack of both transparency and accountability. Both the and the officials colluded in a non-transparent manner and siphoned off huge amounts of public money. The people who were caught have not yet been to administrative and legal actions, in fact they got "perverse incentives" and the honest dedicated people working in the same bank and elsewhere are pushed back into inefficiency. As the saying goes, "Bad money drives away the good money"
The transparency of financial statements of banks is secured through full disclosure and by providing fair presentation of useful information necessary for making economic decisions to a wide range of users. In the context of public disclosures, financial statements should be easy for users to interpret. Whereas more information is better than less, the provision of information is costly. Therefore the net benefits of providing more transparency should be carefully evaluated by standard setters. The adoption of internationally accepted financial reporting standards is necessary to facilitate transparency and contribute to proper interpretation of financial statements. In the context of fair presentation, no disclosure is probably better than disclosure of misleading information. Left to themselves, markets cannot generate a sufficient level of disclosure. Here is the vital role of the accountants, as the bulk portion of useful financial information used by the market participants are provided by the accounting information systems, where the preparers (the employed accountants) provide information which is authenticated by external accountants on the basis of International Accounting Standards (IAS) and International Standards of Auditing (ISA). An accountant should not depend on numbers only; one should engage one's own logic and judgment to analyze set of numbers.
With the view of strengthening good governance in the financial sector, especially in the banking sector, Bangladesh Bank embarked (c) on several financial sector reforms over the years. A large number of home grown reforms have already been taken and some are underway. Bangladesh Bank attempted to the legal framework of the financial sector, bring in dynamism, extend autonomy to the central bank, combat money laundering offences, and stop financing for terrorism. There are several other prudential norms already discussed in the previous section in relation to the Basel Guidelines and the guidelines of various Acts of Bangladesh. One important aspect is the management norms, which concern the fit and proper test for CEOs and directors of a bank, restrictions on the composition and functions of the Board of Directors. Banks have been directed by Bangladesh Bank to include one independent director in the Board of Directors. Audit Committees for all banks mandated clear guidelines, and TORS and carly warning system (EWS) were introduced. The Core Risk Management Guidelines on n risks were introduced quite some time back and credit risk assessment by External C Assessment Institutions (ECAI) have been recommended for all commercial banks. However, we have that these management norms are not followed by The are several privately owned banks where a number of family members are on the Board of Direct which is contrary to the notion of good corporate governance. Therefore one of the main challenge for the banking sector is to ensure good corporate governance which will benefit the deposit borrowers and investors: expand potential markets: broaden ownership: create alternative financing options; accelerate growth; increase employment and help reduce poverty in Bangladesh. To balance the objectives of good governance and ensure compliance of regulations, three m steps are necessary:
