General Information

In an area such as textiles Bangladesh has become a supplement or alternative for entry-level mass textile production. Bangladesh remains, alongside the other countries of South Asia, a country that is difficult to break into for a few reasons: late payments, the lack of law enforcement and controls on currency exchange.

Means of Payment & Banking Specificities

Payments for imports and exports with Bangladesh must be made by irrevocable documentary credit.
The documentary credit must be as simple as possible.  The slightest ambiguity will result in the refusal of the documents.  This is a problem for all international banks.  Only the local importer can resolve the situation.
Despite recent disbursements from the International Monetary Fund, local banks are still facing a major shortage of foreign currency at the end of 2023, and are willingly delaying payments.

While in principle advance payments by importers in Bangladesh are allowed up to a maximum of USD 10,000, in practice local banks avoid this type of payment because the reporting and procedure is very cumbersome.

Documentary collections are only authorised up to a limit of USD 100,000 per business per year, and prior verification from the local bank is required.