Bringing its operations up to date while providing the best possible assistance for its domestic business customers helped Dhaka Bank to secure its place as the winner of the Bank of the Year award in Bangladesh.

Dhaka Bank carried out extensive updates to its IT and operating systems over the past year. The bank replaced its full back-office system by implementing the latest version of Oracle’s Flexcube system.

Syed Mahbubur Rahman, managing director and CEO at Dhaka Bank, says: “Dhaka Bank always aspires to render world-class services to its customers through continuous innovation in every step of the value chain, either through technological changes or re-engineering processes. This in turn leads to achieving excellence in banking.”

Serving Bangladesh’s small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) has been a focus for the bank, and one that saw the creation of tailored products. More than half of Dhaka Bank’s SME customers were first-time borrowers following a focused approach of bringing in new customers, even if they did not hold accounts with the bank. Its overall SME portfolio increased by 24% in 2017.

The bank also launched BillsToCash, a financing solution backed by the buyer, marking a first for this type of loan in the country. The Bangladesh dairy industry was also boosted with the creation of the Dairy Loan. This cluster of loan products was developed to assist those operating in remote rural areas, who are in greatest need of support.

Female entrepreneurs were given an added boost too, with the introduction of the Oditiya loan. The bank’s overall support saw 10 female-owned SMEs receive support in 2017, bringing the total up to 81 female entrepreneurs taking a share of more than Tk413m ($4.93m) in loan facilities.