20/07/2026
BANK BOARDS, MDs, DMDs, C-SUITE: FIVE QUESTIONS THAT SHOULD PRECEDE EVERY MAJOR IT INVESTMENT
Bangladeshi's bank Boards are no longer deciding what technology to buy.
They are deciding how much risk, capital, and resilience their institutions can afford to carry into the next decade.
Over the past five years, we've experienced Taka depreciation, persistent inflation, rising technology costs, supply chain disruption, and an increasingly sophisticated cyber threat landscape.
At the same time, banking margins remain under pressure. Every infrastructure investment costs more, depreciates faster, and carries greater ex*****on risk. When demand surges, hardware and skilled resources quickly become scarce.
This is no longer just an IT decision. It is a capital allocation, risk management, and Board decision.
Before approving the next major investment, ask:
1. Are we building resilienceβor simply replacing ageing infrastructure?
2. Have we assessed the full lifecycle cost, including FX exposure and future refresh cycles?
3. If hardware becomes unavailable or the Taka weakens further, what is our contingency plan?
4. Is our branch network truly cyber-resilient - or simply internet-connected?
5. Will this investment improve profitability and agility -or lock us into another capital-intensive cycle?
Boards should also remember that cloud is only as strong as the infrastructure behind it. Tier III data centers, resilient nationwide connectivity, international bandwidth, and low-latency networks are the foundation of secure digital banking. Building that foundation requires an ecosystem approach, so we have tried to do just that.
- Fiber@Home Ltd.'s nationwide fiber backbone;
- Felicity IDC Limited's Tier III multi-zone data centers; and
- Pico Public Cloud's secure, "consumption-based self-service platform"
We provide the essential building blocks of a resilient digital ecosystem for the country's financial institutions. Together, they help reduce capital intensity, strengthen cyber resilience, improve business continuity, and enable banks to scale confidently in an increasingly uncertain environment.
After decades of working at the intersection of banking and technology across developed, emerging, and frontier markets, one lesson stands out.
Boardroom conversations are rarely about servers.
They are about profitability, trust, risk, timing, resilience, shareholder value, and long-term leadership.
Those are the conversations that matter - and I'd welcome the opportunity to exchange perspectives with Boards and executive teams shaping the future of banking.
The decisions made in today's Boardrooms will define tomorrow's market leaders.
