Body formed to examine bank vault loopholes

The Bank and Financial Institution Division (BFID) Monday formed a six-member committee to examine loopholes of state-owned bank vaults and to take effective steps for stopping further robbery.

The decision of constituting the committee was taken at a meeting of the chief executive officers of eight state- owned banks, including Sonali, Janata, Agrani and Rupali with Banking Division Secretary M Aslam Alam in the chair at the Bangladesh Secretariat.

The move came following a heist at a Sonali Bank branch in Bogra from where robbers on Friday took away Tk 3.0 million through a 30-feet tunnel from a nearby furniture shop into the vault. In another incident, robbers looted Tk 160.4 million also through a tunnel from the bank's Kishoreganj branch on January 24.

Headed by Banking Division Additional Secretary Amalendu Mukherjee, the committee will consist of the Banking Secretary, and four deputy managing directors from the government banks, M Aslam Alam told reporters after the meeting.

The meeting asked the state-owned banks to collect the credentials of the people living near bank branches and submit those to the police.

As part of the long-term measures, the banks will shift their branches to the first floor of their own buildings, the meeting decided.

Mr Aslam Alam said the buglers targeted the Sonali Bank as its branches have more money than other bank branches.

Within the next three months, incidents of heists in the government banks will no longer take place, the Banking Secretary assured.