spend.

In the last six months of 2023, banks in Bangladesh spent a lot less money on projects that support health, like hospitals or medical supplies. They also spent less on projects that tackle climate change and protect the environment. For example, spending on health-related projects went down by about 67%, which means they spent only 1/3 of what they used to spend. Similarly, money spent on fighting climate change and helping the environment dropped by about 71%. Overall, the total amount of money banks spent on these kinds of projects went down by 38%.

One of the reasons for this drop could be that banks are making less profit, which means they have less money to give to these projects. Also, the central bank, which controls the rules for banks, might be telling them to spend less money.

According to the rules, banks are supposed to spend a certain amount of their money on things like education, healthcare, and protecting the environment. But it seems like they’re not spending as much as they should be. In 2023, banks spent less money on these projects compared to the previous year.

Some banks didn’t spend any money on these projects at all, even though they were supposed to. And some banks that didn’t make any profit still spent money on these projects, which is surprising. Newer banks have to spend at least 10% of their profit on these projects, but some of them didn’t follow this rule.

Some specific banks spent more money on these projects than others. For example, Islami Bank Bangladesh spent the most money, followed by Dutch-Bangla Bank and Jamuna Bank. Overall, though, non-bank financial institutions spent much less money on these projects compared to banks.