Preface to the Second Edition We are grateful to the readers-bankers, teachers, students and trainees-for the enthusiastic response towards our modest endeavour to fill in a prolonged vacuum in the field of literature on banks and banking in all its varied and often colorful dimensions. That encouraged us to bring out this new edition with updated materials. Many chapters have been rewritten to synchronise with the central thoughts that made us write treatise. Special attention has been paid to the discussions on the global scenario on banking in the backdrop of Bangladesh's own banking system Two new chapters `Ethics in Banking' and `Electronic Banking' have been added to underscore the importance of ethics and morality that seem to be in short supply in nearly all spheres of the society including banking and the prospectus of application of Information and Communication Technology(ICT) in the banking sector. Also included in the Analysis and Grading of Credit Risks on the basis of guidelines provided by Bangladesh Bank in the CRG manual. Mr Faruquddin Ahmed former Econnmic Advisor of Bangladesh Bank, as before, extended his helping hand to review certain chapters, especially on money market and offered valuable sagestions. Mr Muhammad Ayub, a former senior economist of the State Bank of Pakistan and author of several authoritative books offered his comments and author of several authoritative books on Islamic banking reviewed the chapter on Islamic banking and offered his comments and suggestions on several issues having important bearing on the subject. We are grateful to our publisher Mowla Brothers especially Mr. Ahmed Mahmudul Haque, Proprietor and Mr. Tapon Das, Production officer for the excellent production of the book. We are also indebted to Mr. Golam Farooque, Sales promotion officer for the valuable suggestions for the enlargement of contents to make the book truly useful for the readers. Authors Dhaka September, 2008