Who should be a bank CEO?

I was 40 when I became the youngest chief executive officer in a commercial bank in Bangladesh, and that too in a top global institution. Until then, my career had been rooted largely in Treasury, a function that demands an intimate grasp of liquidity, balance sheets and risks that are often invisible yet decisive for survival.

Those years taught me that leadership in banking is not only about growth but also about anticipating risks, preparing for volatility, and balancing ambition with prudence. I had also built my name in loan restructuring and recoveries, financial institutions risk management, and corporate and investment banking at home and abroad. Looking back, I often ask: if I were to scan the banking landscape of Bangladesh today, where should the next generation of CEOs come from?

The question has become even more relevant as the central bank has recently been forced to intervene in and restructure several troubled banks. A recurring theme in many of these cases is not only mismanagement but also a lack of leadership that understood risk. Too many of our CEOs did not come from risk-oriented functions, and it shows.

In banking, risk is not a department; it is the bloodstream that runs through every decision. If a leader cannot see how a credit decision today may become tomorrow's default, or how liquidity mismatches can spark crises, then the institution is exposed long before the headlines arrive.

Does this mean our future leaders should all come from credit? There is a strong case. Credit officers understand the fundamentals of lending, the heart of traditional banking. They assess business models, gauge repayment ability, and structure deals that align incentives. Yet there is a danger too. If the leadership pipeline is dominated by credit specialists, we risk risk-aversion as the default posture, choking innovation and growth in an economy that badly needs both. Credit is foundational, but without the ability to see beyond balance sheets into new opportunities, a CEO may spend their career on the defensive.

What about corporate bankers, those who have grown up in relationship-driven businesses, connecting with large clients and managing portfolios that keep banks profitable? They bring scale, negotiation skills and an instinct for how markets breathe. But their training often emphasises revenue generation over institutional resilience. Without a grounding in risk or treasury, they may be tempted to chase short-term gains while overlooking structural vulnerabilities.

Balance sheet specialists, on the other hand, deserve more attention in this debate. Banks are first and foremost custodians of balance sheets. A leader who can read liquidity gaps, interest rate exposures, capital adequacy and systemic vulnerabilities with fluency is less likely to be caught off guard. Treasury, where I began, forces you to see the institution as a single organism whose survival depends on liquidity and prudence.

Banking, however, is no longer only about credit, deposits or even balance sheets. The future of the industry will be shaped by technology, artificial intelligence and data-driven decision-making. Already, fintechs are redefining customer expectations, and central banks are experimenting with digital currencies. The next generation of CEOs cannot afford to ignore these trends. Visionaries who can marry technology with banking fundamentals will be the ones to lead institutions forward. In an emerging world of personal wealth management, retail banking competency will also carry weight.

So where should our CEOs come from? The answer may not be a single department but a mindset. The next wave of leaders must combine the prudence of credit, the foresight of treasury, the customer focus of corporate banking, an understanding of wealth concentration, and the imagination of technology. Leadership in banking is not about being the smartest person in the room but about seeing the whole chessboard, anticipating moves before they come, and preparing institutions to weather both storms and seasons of growth.

The writer is the chairman of Financial Excellence Ltd