Banks’ corporate social responsibility spending dropped by 50.8 per cent in January-June period compared with that in the previous six months.
According to Bangladesh Bank data, CSR spending plunged to Tk 150.56 crore in January-June period in 2025 compared with that of Tk 307 crore in July-December, 2024.
Banks spent Tk 309 crore in January-June, 2024, Tk 353 crore in July-December of 2023 against Tk 571 crore in January-June of 2023, according to Bangladesh Bank data.
Bank officials said that the central bank reshuffled board of 15 banks and decided to merge 5 shariah banks amid severe liquidity crisis in the account of massive loan scams and corruptions.
Moreover, irregularities and mismanagement with the CSR spending minimized after the fall of Awami League led government on August 5, 2024.
Many other banks were also facing liquidity crisis and struggling with high distress assets that forced the banks to curtail their CSR spending.
The amount of non-performing loans in the country’s banking sector has soared by Tk 74,570 crore in just three months to reach Tk 4.20 lakh crore at the end of March 2025, according to the Bangladesh Bank.
Besides, the financial sector has been struggling inflationary pressure, poor business environment and confidence crisis in the wake of various scams, which reduced their profit making capacity.
Private sector credit growth also dropped to 6.5 per cent in June amid the liquidity shortage and economic woes in the country.
Of the total CSR expenses in January-June of 2025, the highest amount, Tk 75 crore, was spent for disaster management, Tk 34.35 crore for education sector, followed by Tk 28.12 crore for health sector and just Tk 5.21 crore for Environment and climate change mitigation
According to the BB report, CSR spending by banks declined massively in education, health and disaster management in July-December period compared with that in the previous six months.
Private commercial banks contributed the most, Tk 141 crore or 94 per cent, followed by foreign banks, Tk 7.99 crore or 5.3 per cent, and state-run banks, Tk 1 crore or 0.6 per cent, to the CSR spending in January-June.
Mercantile Bank spent the most on CSR, Tk 24 crore, followed by Shahjalal Islami Bank, Jamuna Bank and Premier Bank.
However, non-bank financial institutions spent less on CSR, with only Tk 1.88 crore spent in January-June of 2025, due to an intense liquidity crisis in the sector.
The NBFIs spent only Tk 5.11 crore under CSR in the July-December, 2024.
23 NBFIs did not spend any money under CSR in the reporting period.
However, ensuring quality of CSR expenditure of the banks has remained a matter of concern, BB officials said.
As per the BB’s guidelines on CSR, banks are allowed to spend for charitable purposes from their net profits and such spending are not mandatory instead it is participatory.
Banks can spend 30 per cent of their allocated fund for education, 20 per cent for health and another 10 per cent for climate risk or disaster management.
Banks are allowed to spend the remaining 50 per cent for sectors like emergency disaster relief, promotion of environmentally sustainable output practices and lifestyles and enhancement of artistic, cultural, literary, sports and recreational facilities for underprivileged segments of people.
However, there is no limit on spending for such purposes.
