BB tightens noose around bank fraudsters’ necks

The central bank tightened its mechanisms to check fraud and forgery through improving internal control and compliance system in the country's banking sector.

Officials said under the just-proclaimed revised mechanisms, foreign- exchange transactions along with money laundering activities have also been brought under monitoring to prevent different types of fraudulence and forgeries in the banks.

The number of questions for self-assessment of anti-fraud internal controls of the banks has been increased to 78 from previous 53, according to the Bangladesh Bank (BB) officials.

The central bank issued a circular in this connection Tuesday, asking the chairmen of the board of directors and managing directors (MDs) & and chief executive officers (CEOs) of all scheduled banks to comply with the revised rules properly.

The revised instructions-which incidentally came against the backdrop of some major incidents of such kind-will come into effect from June 2017.

The banks will have to submit their self-assessment of anti-fraud internal controls reports to the Department of Off-site Supervision of the central bank on a half-yearly basis instead of quarterly one, according to the notification.

The CEOs will have to testify in their declarations like: 'The position of our bank's internal control practices has been reflected truly and faithfully through the information provided in this report'.

"We've extended the report-submitting timeframe by three months more for the banks for complying with all requirements properly," a BB senior official told the FE while explaining the cause of lengthening the timeline.

He also said the central bank used direct-question approaches in its latest mechanisms instead of indirect one used earlier.

siddique.islam@gmail.com