The central bank of Bangladesh asked the state-owned Sonali Bank Limited (SBL) to take necessary action in the event of any forgery of inland bills in consultation with legal experts, official sources said.

In a letter issued Monday, the Bangladesh Bank (BB) also reminded the SBL of making payment to the country's 32 local and foreign commercial banks against only genuine overdue inland bills.

The BB in the letter sent to the SBL managing director said, "In the event of payment against an inland bill if you think it is genuine, make payment on your own responsibility and take steps to collect the money from your clients," the BB letter said.

"You also may take recourse to legal action in case of any forgery of inland bills in consultation with legal experts," the letter added.

The BB collected information on inland bill purchase (IBP) in a bid to find out any such bills' link with the Hallmark loan scam that involved the Ruposhi Bangla Hotel branch of the SBL and other bank branches in Dhaka and Narayanganj, official sources said.

A total of 19 inspection teams of the BB collected the information from 50 branches of 27 commercial banks located in the capital and in Narayanganj.

Last month the Sonali Bank submitted to the BB a list of the overdue 'inland bills' seeking the central bank's clearance about making payment against the bills.

Thirty-two banks claimed about Tk 15 billion with extra charges against the bills.

The SBL also pointed out that a large number of the claims made by the banks were not genuine.

Either the SBL branch in question had no record against such claims or the branch officials had assisted the traders concerned in supplying fake documents against the bills.

However, it was not known immediately how many 'inland bills' were fake.

"We are now working on recourse to legal action in the fraudulence and the inland bill forgeries," an SBL high official said.

"We are now looking into genuineness of the bills. We'll settle payment against the genuine inland bills," he also said.

The Bangladesh Bank authorities after a formal meeting with the apparel sector leaders last month verbally instructed the banks to settle all 'overdue payments' and buy fresh 'inland bills' to restore confidence of both bankers and traders.

In September the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) took a legal move against the officials suspected to be involved in the Hall-Mark loan scam.

News: The Daily Financial Express/Bangladesh/07-Nov-12