Siddique Islam

The central bank is collecting information on inland bill purchase (IBP) to find out the link of the bills with the Hallmark scam that involved the Ruposhi Bangla Hotel branch of Sonali Bank Ltd, officials said Monday.

A total of 19 inspection teams of the Bangladesh Bank (BB) are now collecting information from 50 branches of 27 commercial banks located in the capital Dhaka and Narayanganj.

The inspectors have been asked to assess the value of the IBP linked with the Hallmark scam and identify the persons who were responsible for the financial scam.

The probe teams would also examine diligence of the bank officials concerned in purchasing the IBP Bangladesh Bank (BB) officials said, adding that the inspectors would have to collect the name of the bank branch or the person, who benefited finally.

A single-member team was assigned on September 13 last in this connection and it asked the probe teams to submit their reports to the general manager of the Department of Financial Integrity and Customer Services (DFICS) of the BB by September 18.

"We're collecting the information as part of our monitoring to assess authenticity as well as value of the IBP concerning the Hallmark scam," a senior BB official told the FE without elaborating.

The BB's latest move came against the backdrop of the rising trend of large-scale irregularities in purchasing and providing acceptance of bills against local LCs (letter of credit)-both foreign and local currencies-denominated-by different bank branches in the recent months.

The total number of overdue accepted bills in the banking sector stood at 7,260, involving around US$ 363 million (Tk 29.71 billion) as of June 30 last, according to the central bank statistics.

Earlier on September 13 last, the BB instructed the commercial banks to settle all overdue accepted bills amicably within the next 15 days to ensure discipline in the country's banking sector.

"We've already collected such information from some commercial banks," another BB official said replying to a query relating to the number of bank branches.

Hallmark Group, along with a few other business entities, has allegedly swindled funds worth Tk 35.47 billion from the Ruposhi Bangla Hotel branch of Sonali Bank Limited.

Fifty-seven branches of 27 commercial banks played their part in the scam using the accommodation bill against back-to-back LCs ignoring banking rules and regulations, according to the central bankers.

News: The Daily Financial Express/Bangladesh/18-Sep-12