Bangladesh names ex-IMF official Ahsan H Mansur as central bank chief

The government had to amend the Bangladesh Bank Act to assign the responsibility to Mansur

The interim government has picked economist and former IMF official Ahsan H Mansur as the Governor of Bangladesh Bank.

The government needed to amend the Bangladesh Bank Act to put Mansur in the role.

The 73-year old also served as an executive director of the private think tank Policy Research Institute.

According to the law, anyone over the age of 67 was not allowed to hold the position of governor. Therefore, the law needed to be amended to appoint Mansur.

The proposal to lift the age limit for governor appointment was sent to the president after being approved by the advisory council on Tuesday evening. It was issued as an ordinance afterwards.

Later at night, the Ministry of Finance issued an order appointing Mansur as the central bank chief for four years from the date of joining.

Earlier, in 2020, the law was amended to extend the age limit for governors from 65 to 67 years when former governor Fazle Kabir was reappointed.

Mansur, who has previously worked for organisations like the International Monetary Fund and BRAC Bank, is the 13th governor.

He also worked as a consultant to the government to create policies on public-private partnership projects.

Mansur studied economics at Dhaka University, and began his career there as a lecturer.

He later pursued his postgraduate studies at McMaster University and earned a PhD from Western Ontario University.