1. Non Banking Financial Institutions in Bangladesh:

Initially, NBFIs were incorporated in Bangladesh under the Companies Act, 1913 and were regulated by the provision relating to Non-Banking Institutions as contained in Chapter V of the Bangladesh Bank Order, 1972. But this regulatory framework was not adequate and NBFIs had the scope of carrying out their business in the line of banking. Later, Bangladesh Bank promulgated an order titled ‘Non Banking Financial Institutions Order, 1989’ to promote better regulation and also to remove the ambiguity relating to the permissible areas of operation of NBFIs. But the order did not cover the whole range of NBFI activities. It also did not mention anything about the statutory liquidity requirement to be maintained with the central bank. To remove the regulatory deficiency and also to define a wide range of activities to be covered by NBFIs, a new act titled ‘Financial Institution Act, 1993’ was enacted in 1993 (Barai et al. 1999). Industrial Promotion and Development Company (IPDC) was the first private sector NBFI in Bangladesh, which started its operation in 1981. Since then the number has been increasing and in December 2006 it reached 29. Of these, one is government owned, 15 are local (private) and the other 13 are established under joint venture with foreign participation.

1.1 Recent Development & Activities of NBFIs

The major business of most NBFIs in Bangladesh is leasing, though some are also diversifying into other lines of business like term lending, housing finance, merchant banking, equity financing, venture capital financing etc. Lease financing, term lending and housing finance constituted 94 percent of the total financing activities of all NBFIs up to June 2006. A break-up of their financing activities reveals that the share of leasing and housing finance in the total investment portfolio of NBFIs