Bangladesh Commerce Bank Limited

The bank faces a long-standing capital shortfall and is working to strengthen financial fundamentals under a restructured board and management team.

Incorporated June 1, 1998 as a reconstruction of Bangladesh Commerce and Investment Limited (BCIL), a non-bank financial institution established January 27, 1986 and suspended April 1992. BCIL is sometimes mistakenly cited as BCCI (Bank of Credit and Commerce International); they are distinct entities. The 24 branches of BCIL were reopened as BCBL branches at commercial launch (September 16, 1999). Paid-up capital has been BDT 1,989 million since at least 2014 with no rights issue or capital injection documented in public sources through May 2026. Government ownership (GoB 33.94% + SOCBs Sonali/Janata/Agrani 11.32% + govt corporate bodies 5.15% = 50.41%) per Banglapedia citing 2019 data; private depositors and shareholders hold 49.59%. S Alam Group acquired shares circa 2016 from previous private shareholders and installed proxy leadership; this control was dismantled when BB dissolved the board September 3, 2024. Branch count (75 branches, 33 sub-branches) sourced from bcblbd.com/bcbl_branches as of May 2026; ATM count (3 booths) from banksbd.org/bcbl/atms. Headquarters address confirmed as Eunoos Trade Centre, 52-53 Dilkusha C/A, Motijheel, Dhaka 1000 from banksbd.org and bcblbd.com. Employee count not disclosed in any accessible public source as of May 2026; historical figure of ~1,000 (circa 2016-2018, post-S Alam expansion from ~400) per Prothom Alo investigation. ROA -7.74% for FY2024 per The Banker Database (December 31, 2024 data); this is consistent with the 2018 ROA of -5.87% from the bank's own financial highlights page and the known capital shortfall trajectory. Specific FY2024 balance sheet figures (total assets, deposits, loans, NPL) are in the audited financial statements PDF on bcblbd.com but the file exceeded 10MB fetch limit; no accessible secondary source confirmed individual line items with sufficient precision to publish. Historical reference: FY2018 total assets Tk 38,028M, deposits Tk 31,633M, loans Tk 22,148M, NPL ratio 38.75%, CAR -6.60%, net loss Tk 2,231M per bcblbd.com financial highlights page. Credit rating: no CRAB or CRISL rating confirmed from accessible primary sources for 2023-26; given negative CRAR, any extant rating would be below investment grade. DSE listing: confirmed not listed; confirmed absent from DSE company list (dsebd.org) as of May 18, 2026; has a brokerage subsidiary (Commerce Bank Securities and Investment Limited, CBSIL) but the parent bank itself is unlisted. verification_status=partial: FY2024 individual balance sheet line items, NPL ratio, employee count, and credit rating grade not confirmed from accessible primary sources.