Actions will be taken against respective banks if the inspection teams find any breach of safety directives made by the central bank.

Jebun Nesa Alo

Bangladesh Bank has decided to launch a massive monitoring to ensure security of bank vaults across the country.

Actions will be taken against respective banks if the inspection teams find any breach of safety directives made by the central bank, it said.

In the wake of two recent burglaries in Sonali Bank, the central bank came up with the decision at a meeting yesterday held at its office in Dhaka.

The bank inspection department of Bangladesh Bank will check vault safety measures.

The inspection will be conducted in addition to the department’s regular inspection to financial activities of different bank branches.

"If any branch is found vulnerable and not complying with the Bangladesh Bank directive on safety issue, punitive action will be taken," said Deputy Governor SK Sur Chowdhury.

Bangladesh Bank issued a circular on January 27 asking all the banks to take every necessary stepto ensure their vaults’ safety.

Following the burglary in Sonali Bank’s Kishorganj branch, the circular was issued.

It mentioned that most of the banks didn’t follow the central bank’s instruction on safety of depositors’ money kept at vaults despite repeated warnings from Bangladesh Bank.

Thus, the negligence in safety steps had resulted in looting of depositors’ money breaking into the bank vaults, the central bank added.

If Sonali Bank stepped up vault security after the Kishoreganj branch heist, the following incident of same kind at a Bogra branch of the bank could have been avoided, according to Bangladesh Bank.

On Tuesday, the central bank served a notice to Sonali Bank’s managing directorPradip Kumar Duttato let it know what safety steps were taken after the Kishoreganj branch burglary.

While talking with the Dhaka Tribune, Pradip Kumar Dutta didn’t answer to the question if any additional security steps were taken after the Kishorganj incidence in January.

Rather, he talked about the insurance coverage of the vaults and relocation of branches as part of security efforts.

“Sonali Bankcancelled insurance policy for its vault safetyafter the government’s instruction as premiums were costing huge amounts to the bank,’’ said Pradip Kumar Dutta said.

He said letter was to the government to revive insurance coverage, and the matter had been discussed with Sadharan Bima Corporation too.

As far as insurance coverage is concerned, the insurance on the money deposited at the vaults has to be covered completely.

Sonali Bank MD said to ensure vault security they would need torelocate many branches and it involved a long process.

“We have already begun it (relocation process). But for this interim period, we will have to increase securityguards.”

Under the structural security measures set by Bangladesh Bank, banks are to set up security-tested doors with steel wall around the vault space of the banks. The floors and roofs of around the vaults also have to be certified by an engineer.

As part of technical security measure, there must be an alarming system round the clock along with a closed-circuit television camera at the vaults.

There should be an uninterrupted connectivity between the bank’s central information system and the vault’s security system. Automated fire extinguishers also must be set up into the vaults.

An amount of around Tk16.4 crore was looted from Kishoreganj Sadar branch of Sonali Bank in Januarywhile more recentlyanother burglary hit a Bogra branch of the state-owned bank looting over Tk30 lakh.

News:Dhaka Tribune/13-Mar-2014