The International Monetary Fund (IMF) took a firsthand account of internal control and compliance (ICC) situation of three leading state-owned commercial banks (SoCBs) in direct consultation with them in the capital on Wednesday.
IMF's Article IV Consultation Mission met with the top executives of the SoCBs for the first time to know about their latest financial position, including ICC, a senior official of one of the banks told the FE after the meeting.
The SoCBs who updated the mission regarding their situation are - Sonali, Janata and Agrani.
The banks' top executives informed the meeting that they are now working to improve their ICC in line with the existing Banking Companies Act and the Bangladesh Bank's (BB) instructions for minimising risks.
"We're also implementing the existing core risk guidelines properly to minimise our risks," the SoCB official said.
The central bank earlier identified six core risk areas in the banking sector. The risk factors are: credit, asset and liability, foreign exchange, information technology, internal controls and compliance, and money laundering.
A five-member IMF Article IV Consultation Mission, led by Rodrigo Cubero, deputy divisional chief in Asia and Pacific Department, arrived in Dhaka on Tuesday to assess the country's overall economic performance.
During the meeting, issues like non-performing loan (NPL) situation, progress on automation, business plans and liquidity management were discussed.
"We've assured the IMF mission of completing the SoCBs' ongoing automation process by the end of next year," the official said. He also said the SoCBs informed the team that they are working to reduce the volume of NPL through gearing up recovery drives across the country.
Earlier in the day, the mission met BB deputy governors and senior advisers to discuss situation in the banking sector as well as monetary and exchange-rate issues.
Talking to the FE, a BB senior official said the mission is scheduled to meet BB senior officials again today (Thursday) to know about latest performance of the banking sector and soundness indicators, overall situation of the state-owned banks, including BASIC Bank, and recapitalisation.
During its two-week stay in the capital, the IMF mission is scheduled to meet Finance Minister A M A Muhith, BB Governor Dr Atiur Rahman and senior officials of both the Ministry of Finance and the central bank.
The IMF Article IV Consultation Mission assesses the overall economic performances of its 188 member-countries across the world every two years.
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