NEWS media reported that the Bangladesh Bank has spotted financial irregularities of Tk 4000cr and asked law enforcement agencies to take legal action against the perpetrators. We must give thanks to the central bank for waking up after a long hibernation. The new financial irregularities involving Tk 4000cr was disclosed by the governor at a press briefing arranged for disclosing the half-yearly monetary policy. The deposit of Bangladeshi with Swiss banks declined last year but the capital flights in terms of over-invoice, under-invoice, and Malaysia’s second home opportunity taken by Bangladeshis has risen. The central bank’s failure in controlling the loan scams of Sonali, Janata, and the BASIC bank has been unaddressed while the adulteration of the gold in its vault and the failure in getting back funds from the reserve heist are unforgivable.
The banking sector has got mired in growing loan irregularities that resulted in bad loans following detection of series of loan scams and embezzlements. Sonali Bank failed to recover a single penny of Tk 3,500 crore gulped by little known Hallmark Group in 2013. BASIC Bank is facing severe capital shortfall due to shady loans of Tk 6,000 crore, given during the tenure of its previous board of directors led by its former chairman Sheikh Abdul Hye Bachchu, allegedly appointed on political consideration. Janata Bank is facing loan scam of over Tk 5,000 crore given to little known AnonTex Group. Famers Bank, which faced a major shakeup in its board, repeatedly failed in past few months to honour cheques of depositors because of the cash crunch.
The governor said that significant progress has been made in the recovery process and there is no doubt about the recovery of the entire fund. The central bank is the last resort of fixing banking irregularities and if the central bank can’t do anything, the financial security and trust would be withered. Competition between the banking division of the Finance Ministry and the central bank is decades old while the people’s perception is the central bank opts for regulations which aren’t enforced. We want to believe that the perpetrators who swindle banks would get due punishment. Is our belief illusory?
