Dhaka, May 20 -- A candid admission comes from the finance minister that many well-established companies are facing acute capital shortages, in a crunch he attributes to lack of "fair competition" and governance gaps.

"Many big companies and banks are in serious capital shortage," Finance and Planning Minister Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury said Wednesday while speaking as chief guest at the inaugural session of the first-ever Financial Accounting and Reporting (FAR) Summit held at a city hotel.

The summit was jointly organised by the Financial Reporting Council (FRC), the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Bangladesh (ICAB) and the Institute of Cost and Management Accountants of Bangladesh (ICMAB).

Turning to the predicament of banki...