The central bank has relaxed rules, allowing all the scheduled banks to submit their audited balance sheet by June 30, mainly due to spread of the coronavirus outbreak countrywide, officials said.
The banks are now allowed to submit their audited balance sheet to the central bank by June 30 instead of April 30, according to a notification, issued by the Bangladesh Bank (BB) on Monday.
"We've extended the deadline for submitting audited balance sheet of the banks by another two months after consulting with the government in line with the Banking Companies Act," a BB senior official told the FE.
The banks are now unable to hold tripartite meeting among their board of directors, the BB officials concerned, and external audit firms amid the coronavirus pandemic, he explained.
Such tripartite meeting have to be held before finalising the annual balance sheet, he added.
Under the existing rules, the banks are normally allowed to submit their audited balance sheet to the central bank within two months after end of each calendar year.
The BB is empowered to extend the timeframe for submitting such balance sheet for another two months.
Earlier, the central bank asked the scheduled banks to submit their audited balance sheet of 2019 to the Department of Off-Site Supervision (DOS) by April 30.
On the other hand, the BB is set to scrutinise the banks' annual audited balance sheet and management report of 2019 in line with the existing diagnostic review report (DRR) policy.
"We'll examine the banks' annual audited balance sheet and management report of 2019 after those are submitted to the BB's department concerned," another BB official said while replying to a query.
Under the DRR policy, off-balance sheet items, including opening letter of credit (LC), guaranty and commitment, will be scrutinised along with the balance sheet items to check fraudulence and forgery in the banking sector.
Besides, the central bank will assess different information, including foreign bill purchase (FBPs), loans against trust receipts (LTRs), payment against documents (PADs), loans against imported merchandise (LIMs), forced loans, and off-balance exposures in line with the DRR, according to the BB official.
The central bank earlier amended the DRR, considering the international best practices, to make the financial disclosures more analytical for accurately assessing financial health of the country's banking sector.
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