Bank Asia Limited was incorporated as a Public Limited Company under the Companies Act, 1994 to carry out the banking business in Bangladesh. It formally started banking operation under the Bank Company Act, 1991 on November 27, 1999. During the year 2003, the Bank issued 3,000,000 ordinary shares through IPO and Pre-IPO placement. Initial public offering of the Bank’s share was oversubscribed 55 times.

Bank Asia acquired the business of Bank of Nova Scotia, Dhaka in the year 2001 and at the beginning of the year 2002 the Bank also acquired the Bangladesh operations of Muslim Commercial Bank Limited (MCBL), a bank incorporated in Pakistan, having two Branches in Dhaka and Chittagong with one booth in Dhaka. In taking over the Bangladesh operations, all assets and certain specific liabilities of MCBL was taken over by Bank Asia at book value.