SCB wins Asiamoney Awards

Standard Chartered Bank Bangladesh has recently been recognized as the 'Best International Bank' Asiamoney Awards 2021. The year marks the fifth year of the Asiamoney Awards and also the fifth time Standard Chartered has received this prestigious award.

Asiamoney's award committee, which featured a team of senior Asia-focused journalists based in Hong Kong, supported by proprietary research by its editorial committee, lauded Standard Chartered for being a "part of the firmament [of Bangladesh] in a way no other foreign bank can hope to emulate".

As the only international universal Bank in Bangladesh, Standard Chartered has been playing a unique role as a partner progress to Bangladesh for over 116 years. With the Bangladesh economy growing at between 5% and 7% for the past decade, the bank has positioned itself to support this journey, facilitating major investments in power, energy, transportation and urban development. As a result, Standard Chartered is already supporting various key multi-billion-dollar infrastructure projects such as the construction of a third terminal at Dhaka Airport (a $2.5 billion project), the $1.98 billion Bangabandhu Railway Bridge and $1.2 billion Dhaka Elevated Expressway.

The bank accounted for a major share of all export and import financing, respectively, last year, as well as power generation financing and SME lending by foreign banks. At the same time, the bank commands a leading position in the retail finance space, with strong share of card spend, consistently growing internet banking users and the launch of a number of innovative products.

Beyond supporting the nation's economic progress and development through its core business of banking, the Bank stood by grassroot communities across Bangladesh fight the Covid-19 pandemic. The Bank's initiatives focused both immediate assistance and life-saving medical intervention, while working towards longer-term recovery through skills development and workforce reintegration. These initiatives combined saw the Bank recognised as the international bank with the highest CSR spend in 2020 by Bangladesh Bank.