Trust Bank Limited: Leading Private Commercial Bank in Bangladesh

Overview

Trust Bank PLC is a private commercial bank in Bangladesh sponsored by the Army Welfare Trust, the welfare organisation of the Bangladesh Army. Incorporated in June 1999 and formally inaugurated that November, it is a third-generation private bank listed on the Dhaka Stock Exchange and the Chittagong Stock Exchange. It is distinguished from other Bangladeshi banks by its governance structure: its chairman is, ex officio, the serving Chief of Army Staff, its vice-chairman is the Army's Adjutant General, and most of its directors are serving army officers nominated by the sponsor, while professional bankers conduct day-to-day operations under a managing director and chief executive officer.

As of 31 December 2025, the bank held deposits of Tk 51,112 crore and loans and advances of Tk 40,418 crore, and operated 120 branches, nine sub-branches and 317 ATMs. Its gross non-performing loan ratio of 4.39 percent at the end of 2025 was far below a banking-sector average above 30 percent, and it remained one of the relatively few Bangladeshi banks able to meet the central bank's 12.5 percent capital adequacy requirement. Trust Bank is regulated and supervised by Bangladesh Bank under the same rules as other scheduled banks. It should not be confused with the similarly named Mutual Trust Bank, an unrelated institution.

History

Trust Bank was incorporated on 17 June 1999 under the Companies Act 1994, received its banking licence from Bangladesh Bank on 15 July 1999 and its first branch licence the following month. It was formally inaugurated on 29 November 1999, beginning with authorised capital of Tk 100 crore and paid-up capital of Tk 20 crore provided under the sponsorship of the Army Welfare Trust. The bank grew initially around the armed forces community — with branches in and around cantonments and responsibility for services such as salary disbursement for army personnel — while competing for the general public's deposits and loans as a full commercial bank.

The bank entered the capital market with an initial public offering in July 2007 and was listed on the Chittagong and Dhaka stock exchanges in September 2007. As Bangladesh Bank required banks to separate their capital-market operations, it placed its merchant banking business into Trust Bank Investment Limited, which began operations in November 2010, and in February 2013 incorporated Trust Bank Securities Limited as its brokerage arm. Digital services arrived in stages: a mobile banking service in the early 2010s, its own mobile financial service, t-cash, in April 2018, and the Trust Money app in November 2020. In 2021 the bank launched the mobile wallet tap through a joint venture with Malaysia's Axiata group, buying out its partner in 2023 to make the business wholly owned. In line with the amended companies law, the institution is now styled Trust Bank PLC.

Ownership and Leadership

The Army Welfare Trust is the bank's sponsor and principal shareholder; together, sponsor-directors held 60 percent of its shares as of April 2025, with institutional investors holding 22.24 percent and the general public 17.14 percent. The board is chaired ex officio by the Chief of Army Staff and the Adjutant General serves as vice-chairman — an arrangement that has held under successive army chiefs. General Waker-Uz-Zaman, who became Chief of Army Staff on 23 June 2024, chairs the board and was still presiding over bank events, including product launches and branch inaugurations, in late 2026. The vice-chairmanship passed during 2026 from Major General Md Hakimuzzaman to Major General Mohd Hossain Al Morshed, reflecting changes in the Adjutant General's office.

Executive management is led by Ahsan Zaman Chowdhury, who has served as Managing Director and CEO since 10 July 2024. Chowdhury began his banking career at AB Bank in 1986, later worked at Eastern Bank, and joined Trust Bank in August 2016 as a senior executive vice president. He became Deputy Managing Director and Chief Business Officer in 2020, took charge as acting managing director in April 2024 following the departure of his predecessor, Humaira Azam, and was confirmed in the post that July. In January 2026 he was elected Secretary General of the Association of Bankers, Bangladesh for the 2026–27 term.

Products and Services

Trust Bank provides the standard range of commercial banking products to retail, SME and corporate customers. Retail offerings include savings and current accounts, fixed deposits and deposit pension schemes, and home, auto and personal loans. Its card portfolio, long centred on Visa, was expanded in 2026 with a premium Visa Signature Plus credit card in January and UnionPay debit and credit cards in April. For businesses, the bank offers working-capital and project finance, trade finance for importers and exporters, treasury services and SME lending, and it participates in central bank refinance programmes — in August 2026 it signed up to Bangladesh Bank's Tk 41,000 crore refinancing package for priority sectors such as cottage, micro, small and medium enterprises and the reopening of closed factories.

The bank also provides Shariah-compliant banking through its Islamic banking operations, converting its Kafrul branch into a full-fledged Islamic banking branch in September 2026. An offshore banking unit operates from the head office. Through its subsidiaries it offers merchant banking and portfolio management (Trust Bank Investment PLC), stock brokerage (Trust Bank Securities Limited) and mobile financial services (Trust Axiata Digital Limited). Reflecting its origins, the bank remains closely associated with the armed forces community, handling banking services for military personnel and their families alongside its general retail business.

Branch Network and Outreach

According to the bank's Basel III disclosure, as of 31 December 2025 Trust Bank operated through its head office and a network of 120 branches, nine sub-branches, one SME service centre, 13 collection booths and 317 ATMs across Bangladesh. The head office is at Shadhinata Tower, Bir Srestha Shaheed Jahangir Gate, Dhaka Cantonment, Dhaka-1206. The network combines a strong presence in cantonment areas — serving soldiers, officers and their families — with branches in the country's main commercial centres, and is supplemented by agent and digital channels aimed at customers outside the branch footprint.

Financial Performance

Trust Bank grew its balance sheet in 2025 even as profits came under pressure. Deposits rose 13.94 percent during the year to Tk 51,112 crore at 31 December 2025, while loans and advances reached Tk 40,418 crore. Profitability, however, declined for a second consecutive year: consolidated net profit after tax was about Tk 336 crore for 2025 (earnings per share of Tk 3.38), following Tk 372.31 crore in 2024, which itself had fallen 11 percent year on year. The board recommended a dividend of 13 percent for 2025 — 8 percent cash and 5 percent stock — and the securities regulator approved the stock portion in May 2026. Earnings have leaned increasingly on investment income from treasury bills and bonds; in the first quarter of 2025, for example, investment income surged 91 percent year on year to Tk 313.26 crore, even as the bank's quarterly profit fell 8 percent to Tk 29.37 crore on higher expenses and provisions. The pressure continued into 2026, when first-half consolidated profit fell 11.81 percent year on year to Tk 119.33 crore.

On asset quality and capital, the bank compares favourably with a sector in deep distress. Gross non-performing assets stood at Tk 1,770.90 crore at the end of 2025 — 4.39 percent of outstanding loans — down from Tk 2,405.26 crore at the start of the year, a reduction assisted by loan write-offs of about Tk 1,088 crore during 2025. The capital-to-risk-weighted-assets ratio was 12.94 percent on a solo basis (12.76 percent consolidated), just above the 12.5 percent minimum including the capital conservation buffer, at a time when the banking sector's aggregate capital ratio had turned negative. Paid-up capital stood at Tk 994.08 crore.

Digital Banking

Digital channels are central to the bank's current strategy. Its main platform is the Trust Money app, launched in November 2020, which by late 2025 had more than 400,000 users and over 35 features — including account management, fund transfers, Bangla QR payments, card controls and instant opening of fixed deposits and savings schemes — alongside a web-based internet banking module. The bank has also pursued firsts in self-service banking: in March 2026 it launched what it described as the country's first Smart Teller Machine, at a new "Smart Point" outlet, and in February 2026 it agreed a digital-transformation collaboration with mobile operator Grameenphone. A 2026 agreement with Sheba Fintech added app-based digital nano loans, with the bank as lending partner.

Mobile financial services have a longer and more complicated history. The bank launched its own wallet, t-cash, in April 2018. Its larger venture, Trust Axiata Pay — branded "tap" — was launched on 28 July 2021 by Trust Axiata Digital Limited, a joint venture in which Trust Bank held 51 percent and Malaysia's Axiata Digital Services 49 percent. After tap failed to gain significant market share against dominant rivals, Trust Bank bought out Axiata's stake in late 2023, taking full ownership, and in December 2024 approved a further Tk 31.25 crore investment in the subsidiary. The service remains small but active: it appeared as a live provider on Bangladesh Bank's MFS interoperability list in August 2026, and its app is now presented under the name "TAP – Trust And Pay".

Challenges and Controversies

Trust Bank operates in one of the world's most stressed banking environments. After Bangladesh Bank tightened loan classification, the industry's non-performing loan ratio climbed to 35.73 percent in September 2025 and was still 32.78 percent in June 2026, while the sector's aggregate capital adequacy turned negative. Trust Bank has so far avoided the worst of this — its bad-loan ratio is a fraction of the industry average — but it has not been immune: provisions rose as classified loans increased in early 2025, profits fell in both 2024 and 2025, and earnings have become more dependent on government securities income rather than core lending. Its capital buffer above the regulatory minimum is also thin, leaving limited headroom if asset quality deteriorates.

The bank's ownership model has itself been a subject of public debate for many years. Critics of the military's commercial footprint, including BBC reporting on the Army Welfare Trust's business empire, have questioned whether a serving army chief should chair a listed commercial bank regulated by a civilian central bank, and pointed to episodes of perceived state patronage: under the 2007–08 military-backed caretaker government the bank received exclusive rights to collect passport fees, a decision a former cabinet secretary criticised as breaching procurement rules, and its audited accounts published in 2007 showed the then chairman and army chief, General Moeen U Ahmed, holding loans larger than the applicable rules allowed — an episode he denied involved any impropriety. An earlier episode is also part of the record: foreign-exchange trading losses of about Tk 22.41 crore in 2002–03 were publicly mislabelled as money laundering in 2008, although Bangladesh Bank had treated them as transactional losses and reinvestigation found that no individual had personally benefited. The bank's management maintains that it operates under the same rules as any other private bank, without institutional interference in its banking decisions.

Corporate Social Responsibility

Trust Bank's social role is closely tied to its sponsor. The Army Welfare Trust exists to support the welfare of serving and retired army personnel and their families, and the bank's profits ultimately feed that purpose. Within the banking sector's regulated CSR framework, the bank's programmes have concentrated on health, education and disaster relief. A recent example came during the floods of August 2024, when the bank's employees collectively donated one day's salary — Tk 1 crore in total — to the Chief Adviser's Relief and Welfare Fund for flood victims. Its inclusion efforts also have a measurable retail dimension: in 2025 the number of accounts held by women passed 321,000, about 24 percent of its total accounts, while accounts for marginal customers grew by more than 27 percent.

Outlook and Conclusion

Management's stated strategy is to build a more resilient, digitally led bank: accelerating digital transformation, expanding SME and retail banking, growing low-cost deposits and accounts among under-served groups, and protecting asset quality rather than chasing loan growth. The bank's comparatively low bad-loan ratio, positive — if slim — capital surplus and growing deposit base give it a stronger starting position than many rivals as Bangladesh Bank pushes the sector toward consolidation and stricter supervision. Its tests are equally clear: restoring profit growth without relying on treasury income, keeping classified loans contained as the central bank's tighter definitions bite, rebuilding a thin capital buffer, reviving its wholly owned mobile wallet in a market dominated by much larger competitors, and managing the perennial governance questions that come with being the army's bank. How it handles those tests will decide whether Trust Bank remains a mid-tier institution defined by its sponsor, or consolidates its place among the country's sounder private banks.