Bangladesh Bank is modernising its supervision system to help foil Hall-Mark-like scams, Finance Minister AMA Muhith told parliament yesterday.

Hall-Mark swindled more than Tk 2,600 crore out of state-run Sonali Bank over the last two years.

Lawmakers from both the ruling alliance and the opposition asked Muhith what measures the government has taken to stop recurrence of such forgery in the banking sector.

An experienced banker has already been appointed as fraud risk detection and risk mitigation adviser and started working, Muhith said.

A process was underway to amend the Banking Companies Act, 1991, he said, adding that the amendments, once approved, would put the banking sector in order.

Replying to another query, he said the government had no plan to control or confiscate wealth and money of the Hall-Mark Group.

Lawmaker Salma Islam from Jatiya Party asked Muhith whether the government has taken any measure to carry out an investigation to identify those involved in the Hall-Mark scam.

The minister, in a scripted reply, said cases have been sent to the Anti-Corruption Commission for taking action against those responsible.

The power to buy inland bills has been curtailed at the branch level and the full authority for the job has been given to the banks' head offices, aiming to stop recurrence of forgeries, he added.

“Chief executives of different banks have been warned so that Hall-Mark-like scams do not recur in the baking sector. The bankers' association has also been advised to ensure good governance."

On the waiver of bank interest during the present government, Muhith said the country's eight state banks waived interest worth Tk 4,561 crore of 213,588 loan receivers.

News: The Daily Star/Bangladesh/19-Nov-12