A management shake-up and a renewed focus on financing small and medium-sized enterprises have boosted Brac Bank’s performance. But CEO Selim Hussain says he is nowhere near finished when it comes to unleashing the bank’s potential.

When Selim Hussain became CEO and managing director of Brac Bank in November 2015, what he found there surprised him. 

"There was no commonality of purpose," he tells Asiamoney. "Everyone worked in silos. No one knew what they were doing, and no one talked to anyone outside their department. My chairman said to me: 'Look, we have a world-class NGO and a great mobile banking service called bKash. Your job now is to turn us into a first-class lender. How much time do you need?’ I told him it would take five years, plucking the number out of thin air, and we went from there."