bdnews24.com :
Bangladesh Bank has directed Sonali Bank to shift all its chest branches (ones that also keep other banks’ money) from rented buildings to the bank’s own establishments.
The apex bank directive comes in the wake of daring burglaries carried out by digging tunnels into two Sonali Bank branches and online hacking.
Sonali Bank is the country’s largest state-owned bank.
The central bank issued the directive after a meeting with the high Sonali Bank officials on Tuesday, said a media release of the Department of Currency Management of Bangladesh Bank.
It said the central bank asked Sonali Bank to implement a set of recommendations in view of the looting of Tk 164 and Tk 3 million from its branches in Kishoreganj in January and Adamdighi Upazila in Bogra on March 10 respectively.
In both cases, the burglars had managed to get in through tunnels leading up to the branch vaults from adjacent houses.
The meeting, at the central bank, was chaired by its deputy governor, Abul Kashem.
Sonali Bank Managing Director Pradip Kumar Dutta told the meeting that they had already prepared a list of its vulnerable branches and completed concrete moulding of the RCC (remote cash capture) floors of some of those branches.
The work was on in the remaining hazard-prone units.
In order further boost security in other branches, vaults and chests had been secured by concrete walls, special alarm bells, and closed-circuit cameras.
Executive Director of Bangladesh bank Asim Kumar Dasgupta and General Manager of the Currency Management Department Habibur Rahman were present at the meeting.
The treasury activities of Bangladesh Bank are operated at as many as 66 branches of Sonali Bank. Of which, 32 branches are located in rented houses, according to the Currency Management Department.
