Libya disagrees to buy back 1.7m dinars ditched in SB

The present Libyan government has spurned Sonali Bank proposal to buy back 1.78 million dinars stuck in the bank's vault since 2011 amid Tripoli troubles, officials said.
They said the state-owned bank had bought the currency from Bangladesh expatriates who came back in 2011 from the African nation amid a terrible civil war that finally ousted Colonel Muammar Gaddafi.
Failing to sell the currency worth Tk 100 million despite several attempts, Sonali Bank has now sought intervention of the finance ministry to dispose of the ditched money.
Sources said the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport branch of Sonali Bank had bought the Libyan currency as thousands of Bangladeshi nationals landed at the airport from the Libyan war zone with dinars in hand.
As other banks disagreed to buy the currency of the troubled county, the Sonali Bank branch bought the dinars on a government decision. The branch later sent the money to the local office branch of the bank, and since then, the notes remained stuffed in the vault.
The Sonali Bank later requested the central bank to pay it the same amount of money in exchange for the dinar since the currency is 'not exportable'. The central bank advised Sonali Bank to try to sell off the currency in the open market or banks abroad.
The state-owned bank later contacted the Libyan embassy in Dhaka, the Bangladeshi embassy in Tripoli, various exchange houses, bank's representative offices abroad to sell the currency reserves, but to no avail.
Sources said amid repeated reminder the central bank recently informed the Sonali Bank management that the Libyan National Salvation Government had disagreed to buy the currency notes from the Bangladeshi bank.
A senior official at the banks and financial institutions division acknowledged having received a letter from Managing Director of Sonali Bank Pradip Kumar Dutta about this dilemma.
"We will explore what can be done with the Libyan currencies since those can become torn from staying in the bank vault for a long period," he said.
The bank is also incurring loss as a significant amount remained stuck for long, he added.
"We bought the currency notes from the expatriates on government decision. Those now remained stuck for long, leading to financial loss for the bank," Mr Dutta told the FE Monday.
The MD said he sought the finance ministry's advice so that a way to sell the currency notes could be found out.
"The central banks of the two countries can take join initiative to resolve the issue," Mr Dutta said.
"The amount is very big. Otherwise Bangladeshi nationals who are now going to Libya for jobs or staying there could help us for sending the currency notes over there," he noted.
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