A few weeks ago, we woke up to the news of yet another case of irregular lending activity. According to news reports, a powerful business group took out loans of Tk 30,000 crore from the Islami Bank Bangladesh Limited (IBBL), which the group owns. The amount of loans given to the group violates a single borrower's exposure limit. This happened amid the financial challenges the country has already been grappling with. Over the past decade, our banking sector has faced loan frauds by many business groups and individuals who misappropriated thousands of crores of taka from banks, such as BASIC Bank, Sonali Bank, Janata Bank, and Farmers Bank. That money is yet to be recovered, may never be recovered, and has probably been laundered out of the country. Unfortunately, such lending irregularities are not unknown to the authorities. Such a huge volume of loans cannot be decided and disbursed by any credit officer of a bank without directives from the high authority. Loans are granted to the so-called business groups and individuals bypassing rules and regulations and under the instructions of powerful people. Since there is no accountability for loan defaulters and their fraudulent activities, honest borrowers are demoralised and frustrated. Undue privileges are for large borrowers only. Small borrowers such as farmers are put in jail for defaulting on only a Tk 25,000 loan. Small borrowers also face many hurdles to receive bank loans. Poor disbursement of loans under stimulus packages during the pandemic to small and powerless enterprises is testament to banks' unwillingness to give loans to them. But they cannot take any measure against large unlawful lending as those borrowers are either owners of said banks or have strong backing. Thus, our banking sector has set examples of monopolisation that has resulted in deterioration in the sector's governance. It has also created crony capitalism where banks are used for extraction. Bangladesh Bank, which is supposed to oversee the governance of the country's financial institutions, has rather supported these irregular activities through its policies and actions. For example, an observer was appointed in 2010 for IBBL to monitor any loan irregularities. In 2020, the observer was withdrawn by the central bank, without any explanation.