Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN)- The central bank of Bangladesh will need to strengthen further its supervisory and monitoring role, for preventing occurrence of financial irregularities like that of Hallmark loan scam in Sonali Bank.
The observation came at a meeting of its board of directors on Wednesday. Chairman of the Board and Bangladesh Bank (BB) Governor Atiur Rahman presided over the meeting.
“We’ve apprised the board of the latest situation of Sonali Bank loan scam,” a BB senior official said, adding that the board will discuss in details the matter in its next meeting.
BB director Professor Hannana Begum said the central bank board has been apprised of the Sonali Bank incident.
“A decision on the matter will be taken in the next meeting of the BB board after a proper scrutiny of the report of the central bank,” she told reporters after the meeting.
Talking to the reporters, BB General Manager AFM Asaduzzaman said the central bank placed the findings of its inspection team, regarding the loan scam in the Sonali Bank in the meeting of its board of directors.
“The members of the board will cross-check the findings and give their opinions in the next meeting,” he noted.
A total amount of BDT 35.47 billion has been misappropriated from the Ruposhi Bangla Hotel branch of the Sonali Bank through different kinds of forgery. Of the total amount, the Hallmark Group alone managed to embezzle BDT 26.86 billion.
In its probe report, the central bank has also detected financial irregularities in two other branches of the bank — at Gulshan and at Agargaon in the capital Dhaka.
The BB probe report said the money had been ‘swindled’ out by some companies, including Hallmark Group, in connivance with the senior management staff of the bank. It also identified monitoring failure of the board of directors of the country’s largest state-owned commercial bank which aided the swindling out of the money.
BBN/SSR/AD-30Aug12-1:10 pm (BST)
