DHAKA -- Businessman Abul Kalam Azad has deposited his money at Basic Bank in Dhaka for years, trusting that the state-owned lender was a secure place to park his savings.
But the South Asian nation's financial sector is reeling from a liquidity crisis amid accusations of bank executives' dubious dealings and billions of dollars in bad loans. Bangladesh's central bank in March ordered the merger of 10 of the country's 61 private and state-owned lenders in a bid to fix their battered balance sheets and keep them afloat, leading to a crisis of confidence among savers.
