Atiur Rahman

Atiur Rahman (আতিউর রহমান; born 3 August 1951) is a Bangladeshi development economist, author, and banker.

Rahman was born in a village in Jamalpur district on 13 December 1951.

His father, who was a landless farmer, had received no schooling.

Rahman went to school, but had to quit after third grade due to their financial situation.

He was able to resume his education shortly after, taking the final examination for sixth grade.

Eventually, he was admitted to Mirzapur Cadet College in seventh grade.

A teacher, Foyez Moulavi, collected charity funds to facilitate his admission.

Considering his financial inability, the college authority granted him free tuition.

Thus he could continue at the college, where he passed the SSC and HSC examinations, securing positions in the merit list both times.

He earned BSS and MSS degrees in economics from the University of Dhaka.

Rahman served as a planning officer in the Bangladesh Tourism Corporation in 1975.

With a Commonwealth scholarship, he went to SOAS, University of London to complete his Ph.D. in 1977.

His thesis later came out as a book under the title Peasants and Classes, published by the Oxford University Press.

In 1994, he established a development NGO under the title Unnayan Shamannay.

In 2001, the government appointed him as chairman of the board of directors of the Janata Bank, the second-largest in the country.

He worked at the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies in different capacities for nearly 28 years and retired as Senior Research Fellow on 4 April 2006.

He served as director of the state-owned Sonali Bank, the largest in Bangladesh.

In 2006, he joined the University of Dhaka in the Department of Development Studies as a professor.

He served in Mohammed Yunus' National Task Force on Poverty Eradication.

He was involved in the management of a number of socio-cultural organisations including Credit Development Forum, Monajatuddin Smriti Sangsad, Bangladesh Economic Association and Asiatic Society and Bangla Academy.

Rahman focused on poverty alleviation, engaging in first-hand research to find the causes of poverty and means of remedy.

He worked specifically with shoal dwellers.

On 29 April 2009, Rahman was appointed as the 10th governor of Bangladesh Bank, the central bank of the country, for a tenure of four years.

He assumed the title on 3 May 2009 and was reappointed until July 2016.

As governor, he took steps to develop the economy by instituting programs including women entrepreneur loans, a loan for landless farmers and special programs around green finance.

Rahman worked to bring automation and digitization into the banking sector by creating the National Payment Switch.

He introduced automated check clearing for banks in Bangladesh using local currency cheques; starting mobile banking; establishing the Bangladesh Electronic Funds Transfer Network (BEFTN); and instituting the Bangladesh Automated Clearing House (BACH).

BEFTN is a system of transferring money from one bank account directly to another bank without paper money changing hands.

Bangladesh foreign exchange reserves quadrupled during his tenure.

He served as the 10th Governor of Bangladesh Bank, the central bank of Bangladesh.

He has been called "the banker of the poor" for his contributions in developing the Bangladeshi economy.

Rahman is credited with instituting changes in the banking industry that greatly increased the country's foreign exchange reserves and brought automation and digitization in the banking sector.

Achievements during his tenure include the creation of the National Payment Switch; introducing automated check clearing for banks using local currency cheques; starting mobile banking; establishing the Bangladesh Electronic Funds Transfer Network (BEFTN); and installing the Bangladesh Automated Clearing House (BACH).

On 15 March 2016, he resigned as central bank governor after the cyber hacking and theft of US$101 million in foreign reserves from the Bangladesh Bank account held at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

In March 2016, Rahman resigned from his post following the 2016 Bangladesh Bank heist.

Before the resignation was made public, Rahman stated that he would resign if it would benefit his country.

Two days after his resignation, he returned to his position as professor at the Department of Development Studies at the University of Dhaka.

Currently he is the 'Bangabandhu Professor' of University of Dhaka.

After his tenure as a governor, he rejoined the Department of Development Studies.

The Dhaka University Syndicate appointed him as a 'Bangabandhu Chair' on 1 November 2019.