Of course Rupali Bank will be renamed. New name: Rubali Bank, of course. J/k.

The privatization of the Nationalized Commercial Banks is a good thing at a general level. The fear that has been expressed is that privatization will lead to the shutting down of bank branches around the country. My own sources tell me that this is unlikely the case - as the real strength of the NCB’s is in their hundreds of branches spread out all over the country and in prime locations around the major cities. A buyer would basically be buying existing networks at a discount. Such networks would take a private bank years and lots of $$$ to build. And such networks give the NCB’s a leg-up in channeling remittances… 

The efficacy of a well-run privatization process can be seen in the vastly improved risk-management and reporting processes at Agrani Bank that was placed under private management (with a PWC advisory team) in a World Bank project in 2004. There was a quick turnaround there from huge losses (not always reported) to consistent (and audited) profits the last few years. This in spite of much government interference, particularly during the dollar/fuel crisis in late-2005/early-2006. The contrast in performance with the other NCB’s in this period was tremendous. 

I do not have any information to comment upon the Rupali-buyers. An internet search for information about the buyer yields very little information (what’s there is connected with the Rupali Bank purchase itself). Lexis also tells us very little. It would be foolhardy to speculate whether they’ll be able to improve the sorry state of affairs at Rupali.

The key concern though in any privatization scheme - one that I continue to stress - is process, process and process…