Corporate Governance and Corporate Social Responsibility in Bangladesh with special reference to Commercial Banks

This is an exploratory paper with the aim of determining the nature and extent of corporate social responsibility reporting in the banking sector in Bangladesh, and to assess the need to improve corporate social responsibility by such firms. Corporate social responsibility is associated with corporate governance and ethical business procedure. Good corporate governance is expected to underpin effective and efficient corporate social responsibility within firms. We observe, from our content analysis of the annual reports of three cases studies within the Bangladesh banking industry, that the corporate social responsibility disclosures focus on initiatives undertaken to support two critical two sectors within Bangladesh’s economy: agriculture and the SME sector. Further disclosures address contributions and donations made by the banks to support underprivileged sections of Bangladesh society including destitute youth and women. Of the three cases examined in this study, two are relatively new entrants to the banking sector. We observed that the newest firm, incorporated in 1999, made no disclosures in regards to its corporate social responsibility and, as a consequence, conclude that the corporate governance mechanisms in this firm are likely to be unsophisticated.