Financial regulators of Bangladesh

Bangladesh’s financial system is regulated by a set of statutory bodies, most of them attached to or administered through the Ministry of Finance. The central bank, Bangladesh Bank, regulates banks and non-bank financial institutions; separate authorities regulate the securities market, insurance and microcredit; and a financial intelligence unit handles anti-money-laundering functions ¹⁸.

The regulators

Regulator	Bangla	Enabling statute	Head (as of 19 September 2026)
Bangladesh Bank	বাংলাদেশ ব্যাংক	Bangladesh Bank Order, 1972 (P.O. 127 of 1972) [S8]	Governor Md Mostaqur Rahman, since 26 February 2026 [S1]
Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (BSEC)	বাংলাদেশ সিকিউরিটিজ অ্যান্ড এক্সচেঞ্জ কমিশন	Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission Act, 1993; established 8 June 1993 [S2]	Chairman Masud Khan, appointed 4 June 2026 [S3][S9]
Insurance Development and Regulatory Authority (IDRA)	বীমা উন্নয়ন ও নিয়ন্ত্রণ কর্তৃপক্ষ	Insurance Development and Regulatory Act, 2010; instituted 26 January 2011 [S1]	Chairman Mir Nadia Nivin, gazetted 16 June 2026 [S10]
Microcredit Regulatory Authority (MRA)	ক্ষুদ্রঋণ নিয়ন্ত্রণ কর্তৃপক্ষ	Microcredit Regulatory Authority Act, 2006 (Act No. 32 of 2006), in effect 27 August 2006 [S1]	Executive Vice Chairman Prof. Dr. Mohammad Helal Uddin, appointed 9 October 2024 [S11]
Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU)	বাংলাদেশ ফাইন্যান্সিয়াল ইন্টেলিজেন্স ইউনিট	Money Laundering Prevention Act, 2012 [S5]	Head Iqtiaruddin Md. Mamun, since 20 January 2026 [S6][S13]
Financial Reporting Council (FRC)	—	Financial Reporting Act, 2015; formed 2016 [S8][S15]	Chairman Dr. Md. Sajjad Hossain Bhuiyan, appointed May 2025 [S12]

Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission

BSEC is a statutory body attached to the Ministry of Finance, established on 8 June 1993 under the Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission Act, 1993. It comprises a Chairman and four Commissioners, appointed full-time by the Government, with the Chairman as Chief Executive ². The current Chairman is Masud Khan, a chartered accountant, appointed by a Ministry of Finance notification of 4 June 2026 for a four-year term, following the resignation of Khondoker Rashed Maqsood ³⁹. The Commissioners are Tanwir Habib Rahman; Nahid Mahtab; Md. Nafeez Al Tarik; and Hossain Sadat, who joined on 28 July 2026 ³.

BSEC describes its mandate as protecting the interests of investors in securities, developing the securities market and formulating rules on securities-related matters ². Its stated functions include regulating the business of stock exchanges and securities markets; registering and regulating brokers, sub-brokers, share transfer agents, merchant bankers, trustees, registrars, underwriters, portfolio managers and investment advisers; registering and monitoring collective investment schemes including mutual funds; monitoring self-regulatory organisations; prohibiting fraudulent and unfair trade practices; prohibiting insider trading; regulating substantial acquisition of shares and take-overs; investigation, inspection, inquiry and audit; and investor education and research ². It has been an ‘A’ category member of the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) since 22 December 2013 ².

Insurance Development and Regulatory Authority

IDRA operates under the Ministry of Finance and was instituted on 26 January 2011 under the Insurance Development and Regulatory Act, 2010, replacing the predecessor office of Chief Controller of Insurance. It has a four-member executive body headed by a Chairman, responsible for the general supervision and direction of its business ¹. Its mandate, as summarised by Bangladesh Bank, is to protect the interests of policyholders and other stakeholders under insurance policies, to supervise and regulate the insurance industry, and to ensure its orderly and systematic growth ¹.

The current Chairman is Mir Nadia Nivin, appointed by a gazette notification of the Financial Institutions Division dated 16 June 2026. She succeeded Dr. M. Aslam Alam, who resigned on 2 March 2026 ¹⁰.

Microcredit Regulatory Authority

MRA operates under the Financial Institutions Division of the Ministry of Finance and was established under the Microcredit Regulatory Authority Act, 2006, in effect from 27 August 2006 ¹¹¹. Its mandate, as stated by Bangladesh Bank, is to ensure transparency and accountability in the microcredit activities of non-governmental microfinance institutions and to foster sustainable growth of the sector, through three primary functions: licensing of microfinance institutions; supervision for ongoing compliance; and enforcement of sanctions where an institution fails licensing or supervisory requirements ¹.

The Executive Vice Chairman is Prof. Dr. Mohammad Helal Uddin of the Department of Economics, University of Dhaka, appointed by the Financial Institutions Division on 9 October 2024 for a three-year term and taking office on 14 October 2024 ¹¹.

Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit

BFIU is the national agency for combating money laundering, terrorist financing and proliferation financing. It was established within Bangladesh Bank as the Anti Money Laundering Department in June 2002 and was transformed into the Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit on 25 January 2012 under the Money Laundering Prevention Act, 2012, with operational independence ⁵.

Its functions, as stated by BFIU, include receiving suspicious transaction and activity reports and cash transaction reports; analysing them and complaints; producing financial-intelligence reports and disseminating them to investigating agencies; maintaining databases; issuing directions and guidance notes to reporting organisations; conducting on-site and off-site supervision for compliance; monitoring implementation of United Nations Security Council resolutions relating to proliferation financing; training reporting organisations; signing memoranda of understanding with foreign financial intelligence units; cooperating with the Financial Action Task Force, the Asia/Pacific Group on Money Laundering, the Egmont Group, the World Bank, the IMF, the Asian Development Bank and UNODC; providing the secretariat to the National Coordination Committee and the Working Committee on AML/CFT; and serving as secretariat of the inter-agency Task Force for Stolen Asset Recovery ⁷.

The head of BFIU is Iqtiaruddin Md. Mamun, a member of the Bangladesh Civil Service (Taxation Cadre), who assumed office on 20 January 2026 ⁶¹³.

Financial Reporting Council

The FRC was established under the Financial Reporting Act, 2015 and was formed in 2016, to bring the financial-reporting activities of entities under a regulatory framework and to oversee accounting and audit standards ⁸¹⁵. Its Chairman is Dr. Md. Sajjad Hossain Bhuiyan, a former Commissioner of Taxes of the National Board of Revenue, appointed in May 2025 ¹². As reported on 4 September 2026, the Council had been unable to recruit permanent staff and had four key regulations awaiting approval, with applications opening on 6 January 2026 ¹⁵. That statement is reproduced as reported and is a description of the Council’s administrative position, not an assessment by this site.

Deposit protection and debt recovery

• The Deposit Insurance Trust Fund was created under the Bank Deposit Insurance Act, 2000. The Board of Directors of Bangladesh Bank is its Trustee Board, and a Deposit Insurance Department operates within the Bank ¹.
• Money Loan Courts are specialised courts for the recovery and resolution of non-performing loans, established under the Money Loan Court Act, 2003 ⁸.

The stock exchanges

Bangladesh has two stock exchanges: the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), established in 1954, and the Chittagong Stock Exchange (CSE), which began operations on 10 October 1995. BSEC describes all exchanges as self-regulated, private-sector entities whose operating rules must be approved by the Commission; both were demutualised into public limited companies under the Exchanges Demutualization Act, 2013. Trading on both exchanges is conducted by computerised automated trading systems ⁴. The CSE’s own site identifies it as "Chittagong Stock Exchange PLC" ¹⁴.

Verification notes

• IDRA’s, MRA’s and FRC’s own websites returned no readable content to a direct fetch — `idra.gov.bd` and `mra.gov.bd` returned client-rendered shells and `frc.portal.gov.bd` resolved to an unavailable domain. Their Bangla names, detailed mandates and internal composition are therefore drawn from Bangladesh Bank’s regulator page and from reporting, and are not quoted from each authority’s own site ^1101115.
• Bangla names for the FRC and the officially confirmed Bangla names for MRA and BFIU were not verifiable from official sources in this research round; the Bangla forms given above are those in general use and are flagged as not officially confirmed.
• No additional statutory financial regulator beyond those listed was verified.
• The current management of Sadharan Bima Corporation and Jibon Bima Corporation was not verified.

Sources

15 sources cited. Tiers: T1 official or primary, T2 scholarly or curated, T3 media of record.

1. Bangladesh Bank — Regulators of the Financial System — Bangladesh Bank (T1, accessed 2026-09-19). https://www.bb.org.bd/en/index.php/financialsystems/regulator
2. About BSEC — Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (T1, accessed 2026-09-19). https://www.sec.gov.bd/about-bsec
3. BSEC — The Commission (leadership) — Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (T1, accessed 2026-09-19). https://www.sec.gov.bd/commission
4. BSEC — Stock Exchanges — Bangladesh Securities and Exchange Commission (T1, accessed 2026-09-19). https://www.sec.gov.bd/stock-exchange
5. BFIU — Establishment — Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (T1, accessed 2026-09-19). https://www.bfiu.org.bd/index.php/home/establishment
6. BFIU — Head of Bangladesh FIU — Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (T1, accessed 2026-09-19). https://www.bfiu.org.bd/index.php/home/head_bfiu
7. BFIU — Function — Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (T1, accessed 2026-09-19). https://www.bfiu.org.bd/index.php/home/bfiu_function
8. Bangladesh Bank — Laws and Acts — Bangladesh Bank (T1, accessed 2026-09-19). https://www.bb.org.bd/en/index.php/about/lawsnacts
9. Masud Khan new BSEC chairman — The Daily Star (T3, accessed 2026-09-19). https://www.thedailystar.net/business/news/masud-khan-new-bsec-chairman-4190481
10. Nadia Nivin appointed IDRA chairman — The Business Standard (T3, accessed 2026-09-19). https://www.tbsnews.net/bangladesh/nadia-nivin-appointed-idra-chairman-1464901
11. Prof Helal Uddin joins as MRA’s executive vice chairman — The Financial Express (T3, accessed 2026-09-19). https://thefinancialexpress.com.bd/trade/prof-helal-uddin-joins-as-mras-executive-vice-chairman
12. Md Sajjad Hossain Bhuiyan appointed as new FRC chairman — The Financial Express (T3, accessed 2026-09-19). https://thefinancialexpress.com.bd/home/md-sajjad-hossain-bhuiyan-appointed-as-new-frc-chairman
13. Iqtiaruddin made BFIU head — The Daily Star (T3, accessed 2026-09-19). https://www.thedailystar.net/news/iqtiaruddin-made-bfiu-head-4079501
14. Chittagong Stock Exchange PLC — official site — Chittagong Stock Exchange PLC (T1, accessed 2026-09-19). https://www.cse.com.bd/
15. Approval delays leave Financial Reporting Council in crisis (statement of FRC status) — bdglobaltimes (T3, accessed 2026-09-19). https://bdglobaltimes.com/en/

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