Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN) – General managers’ (GMs) of the central bank have been asked to strengthen monitoring and supervision for mitigating the overall risks in the country’s banking sector.
The advice was given at an annual conference of the GMs held at the central bank Sunday. Bangladesh Bank (BB) Governor Atiur Rahman was present on the occasion as the chief gust.
The GMs have also been asked to use new techniques to check fraud and forgeries if necessary, officials said.
“We’ve been advised for taking precautionary measures to ensure stability in the country’s banking sector,” a GM told the FE after the meeting.
He also said the central bank is now working to introduce a Taka dashboard shortly as part of its strengthening supervision and monitoring.
Earlier on February 12 last year, the central bank launched an electronic system, generally known as ‘dashboard,’ for monitoring all kinds of foreign exchange transactions aiming to check fraud and forgery in the country’s banking sector.
The dashboard provides summary of export, import, inland back to back letters of credit (L/Cs) and inward and outward remittances separately with categorically separated details.
The meeting had discussion on different issues including regulatory changes, supervision and stability, capacity building and development of information and communications technology.
“We’ve also discussed updating of the existing core risk management guidelines for improving efficiency of the commercial banks,” another GM said while replying to a query.
He also said the central bank has already formed committees in this connection.
The BB earlier identified six core risk areas in the country’s banking sector. The risk factors are: credit, asset and liability, foreign exchange, information technology, internal control and compliance, and money laundering.
At the conference, the central bank chief asked the GMs to give attention to private sector foreign loans so that the scheduled banks would not give guarantee beyond their capacity against foreign credits.
“The central bank should also take cautious stance on the foreign loans taken by the businesspeople so that the credit will not be short-term one,” the BB governor noted.
BBN/SSR/AD-17Feb14-11:46 am (BST)
