Meet the longest-career Bangladeshi banker Dilip Das Gupta
Dilip Das Gupta, the longest-career Bangladeshi banker recognised by the Guinness World Records, started off his banking job at 21 years old and contributed to creating many industrialists through bank financing during his 60 years career.
Gupta, who is still working as a Credit Specialist for the Colombo office of Sri Lanka-based Commercial Bank of Ceylon (CBC), shared his diverse work experiences as a credit manager in an interview with The Business Standard.
Recalling his first bank financing endeavour for the shipbreaking industry in 1978, Gupta said, "MA Jinnah, then managing director of a German shipping company Hegge and Company, came to me with a new idea of importing abandoned ships in Bangladesh."
At that time, he was working as a credit manager at the Chattogram branch of the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI).
Keep updated, follow The Business Standard's Google news channel
"Jinnah who was working for a foreign shipping company wanted to start a business in Bangladesh with a bank financing of Tk40 lakh. At that time, I had some ideas about shipbuilding and repairing but never heard of shipbreaking. So I asked him to give details about the business," said Gupta.
"Jinnah told me that he wanted to import 30-40-year-old ships from abroad and break those in Bangladesh to extract raw materials for building construction. There will be a huge demand as building raw materials were being imported back then," he said, citing Jinnath's plan.
When Gupta proposed the new idea to his branch manager, the manager refused to finance the project considering the risk factors of a new business. However, the manager suggested he take the risk on his own.
Gupta took the challenge as he was convinced by the client about the prospect of the industry. He made a project proposal and sent it to his London head office and got approval.
"Though the head office approved the financing of Tk40 lakh, I could tell it was reluctantly approved," said Gupta.
With this loan, Jinnah first imported a 4500-ton ship and started breaking in the breaking yard. "I visited the shipbreaking activities, which is a massive task. I was so happy to see that something new has started."
Though the bank was sceptical about getting back the loan, Jinnah successfully paid the money back on time. Besides, securing deposits was very important for banks then and Jinnah deposited Tk1 lakh to the bank that time from the profit he made, which was a big help, said Gupta.
This is how Gupta opened up a new avenue for bank financing and now the size of the shipbreaking industry is around Tk13,000 crore and nearly 70 shipbreaking yards are in operation.
"This is the credit manager's job to find new avenues in financing," said Gupta.
Gupta also claimed that he had an active role in introducing "back-to-back letters of credit (LCs)" to support garment industries in 1981.
"Exporters had to buy the US dollar for importing raw materials for producing export goods. It was causing financial pressure on them. Later bankers came forward to offer exporters a 180-day credit period to make import payments after receiving export proceeds," he said.
Born in 1942 in Chattogram, Dilip Das Gupta started his career with United Bank in 1963 and during his entire career, he worked as a credit manager.
He said during his long career, he never had defaulted clients, mainly because of his method of nursing and guiding clients.
The banking sector saw a huge transformation now but high-profit targets for credit managers caused a mountain of default loans. At present, credit managers are more educated but they have to choose clients fast to make high profits. As a result, they do not get time for proper assessment of businesses causing default loans, Gupta said.
"The number of banks is higher in Bangladesh but people's engagement with the banking system did not grow alike. It is because of the lack of awareness and confidence," he said.
In 2023 publications of Guinness World Records, Gupta was recognised as the Bangladeshi banker with the longest career.
Gupta served Commercial Bank of Ceylon (CBC) Bangladesh operations as the senior general manager till his retirement in September 2022, according to the bank.
In his long-lasting career, he also worked with Standard Bank, Rupali Bank and Credit Agricole Indosuez Bank.
He served CBC as senior general manager for 14 years since 2008 and then started to work as a credit specialist in September last year at the same bank's Colombo office, according to the bank.
