Bangladesh is not unique in facing financial frauds; it happens everywhere in the world, SK Sur Chowdhury, deputy governor of Bangladesh Bank, said yesterday.

“We have detected those scams and have taken so many actions,” Chowdhury said at a press briefing at the central bank. He cited setting up a financial stability department at the central bank as an example of combating such situations.

Governor Atiur Rahman was also present at the briefing held to inform the media of BB's fourth executive retreat on five-year strategic planning scheduled for this month.

“We have learnt from those scams and we will discuss the issues in the upcoming strategic planning meet,” Chowdhury said.

Though poor governance has led to many financial scams in the country for several years in the past, the topic was not particularly discussed in BB's presentation on the forthcoming strategic planning. Some of the scams were big and rattled the entire financial sector.

The Hall-Mark scam that involves more than Tk 2,600 crore from state-owned Sonali Bank and the Bismillah Towels scam involving around Tk 1,200 crore of Prime Bank and Janata Bank were two big frauds in recent times.

State-owned BASIC Bank crossed all limits when the government-appointed board led by Sheikh Abdul Hye Bacchu allegedly embezzled around Tk 5,000 crore between 2010 and 2013. Many of the loans were given on forged documents.

Rahman said he is going to emphasise good governance in the next strategic planning.

“We will set up a leadership development and excellence centre in Chittagong to train banks' chairmen, chief executives and other senior officials on good governance,” Rahman