History : On 7 April 1972, after the Independence War and the eventual independence of Bangladesh, the Government of Bangladesh passed the Bangladesh Bank Order, 1972 (P.O. No. 127 of 1972), reorganising the Dhaka branch of the State Bank of Pakistan as Bangladesh Bank, the country’s central bank and apex regulatory body for the country’s monetary and financial system. The 1972 Mujib government pursued a pro-socialist agenda. In 1972, the government decided to nationalise all banks to channel funds to the public sector and to prioritise credit to those sectors that sought to reconstruct the war-torn country – mainly industry and agriculture. However, government control of the wrong sectors prevented these banks from functioning well. This was compounded by the fact that loans were handed out to the public sector without commercial considerations; banks had poor capital lease, provided poor customer service and lacked all market-based monetary instruments. Because loans were given out without commercial considerations, and because they took a long time to call a non-performing loan, and once they did, recovery under the erstwhile judicial system was so expensive, loan recovery was abysmally poor. While the government made a point of intervening everywhere, it did not set up a proper regulatory system to diagnose such problems and correct them. Hence, banking concepts like profitability and liquidity were alien to bank managers, and capital adequacy took a backseat. In 1982, the first reform program was initiated, wherein the government denationalised two of the six nationalised commercial banks and permitted private local banks to compete in the banking sector. In 1986, a National Commission on Money, Banking and Credit was appointed to deal with the problems of the banking sector, and a number of steps were taken for the recovery targets for the nationalised commercial banks and development financial institutions and prohibiting defaulters from getting new loans. Yet the efficiency of the banking sector could not be improved. The Financial Sector Adjustment Credit (FSAC) and Financial Sector Reform Programme (FSRP) were formed in 1990, upon contracts with the World Bank. These programs sought to remove government distortions and lessen the financial repression. Policies made use of the McKinnon-Shaw hypothesis, which stated that removing distortions augments efficiency in the credit market and increases competition. The policies therefore involved banks providing loans on a commercial basis, enhancing bank efficiency and limiting government control to monetary policy only. FSRP forced banks to have a minimum capital adequacy, to systematically classify loans and to implement modern computerised systems, including those that handle accounting. It forced the central bank to free up interest rates, revise financial laws and increase supervision in the credit market. The government also developed the capital market, which was also performing poorly.[citation needed] FSRP expired in 1996. Afterwards, the Government of Bangladesh formed a Bank Reform Committee (BRC), whose recommendations were largely unaddressed by the then-government.[citation needed] At present it has ten offices located at Motijheel, Sadarghat, Chittagong, Khulna, Bogra, Rajshahi, Sylhet, Barisal, Rangpur and Mymensingh in Bangladesh; total manpower stood at 5807 (officials 3981, subordinate staff 1826) as of 31 March 2015.

Branch offices:
1. Motijheel
2. Sadarghat
3. Bogura
4. Chattogram
5. Rajshahi
6. Barishal
7. Khulna
8 Sylhet
9. Rangpur​