Newly appointed Bangladesh Bank governor Ahsan H Mansur said they would track down oligarchs created during the immediate past political regime in both home and abroad to recover funds stolen by them from the country鈥檚 banking sector.
鈥楢 massive amount of funds has been looted from the banking sector,鈥� said the BB governor in an interview on August 20, a week after he was appointed by the interim government to look after the banking sector which was turned out to be a happy hunting ground by certain groups for appropriation of public funds.
Most of this fund has been smuggled out, said the BB governor, adding that the rest was kept in the country.
The BB governor said they would establish an asset recovery institution to deal with the recovery of stolen assets from home and abroad.
The plunderers will be made accountable, he said.
He also said the central bank would not allow any vested interest to plunder depositors鈥� money any more.
On August 13, Mansur was appointed as the central bank governor by the interim government led by Nobel laureate professor Muhammad Yunus, a week after Sheikh Hasina resigned as prime minister and fled the country amid a mass uprising against her authoritarian rule.
The appointment also came at the moment when the banking sector reached nadir because of controls by a number of business groups with blessings from the Awami League-led regime between 2009 and 2024.
It has been reported that S Alam Group, a Chattogram-based business group, is among the groups and was successful in establishing control over Islami Bank Bangladesh, Social Islami Bank, First Security Islami Bank, Union Bank, Global Islami Bank and Bangladesh Commerce Bank through hostile takeover of them one after another since 2017.
Under the leadership of chairman Saiful Alam Masud, S Alam Group allegedly took about Tk聽2 lakh crore from the banks in violation of rules and regulation, which eventually created liquidity shortage in the banks.
To tackle the liquidity crises, the BB under immediate past governor Abdur Rauf Talukder had provided liquidity support to S Alam-controlled banks by printing money.
鈥榃e will not provide such support any more,鈥� said the new BB governor.
The new BB governor dismissed the apprehension that the suspension of fund supports might force these banks to postpone their activities and affect businesses of other banks and financial entities linked to them.
Policies and actions in this regard will be executed in a way so that the businesses face no backlashes, he said.
鈥榃e will not let these banks suspend their activities completely,鈥� he noted.
The BB governor said that they would concentrate on recovering defaulted loans from errant borrowers and repatriation of the smuggled-out money once the fund leakage is checked.
He, however, admitted that a full recovery of the bad loan was not possible, which according to him is a reality the nation has to digest.
He, however, promised that every defaulted loan would be reviewed to make errant borrowers accountable.
The total amount of defaulted loans in the banking sector was Tk 1,45,633 crore at the end of December 2023, up from Tk聽1,20,656 crore in December 2022 and Tk聽1,03,273 crore in December 2021.
It is reported that deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina鈥檚 former adviser for private industry and investment Salman F Rahman and his associated companies have defaulted on about Tk 18,000 crore loans taken from Janata Bank.
The companies associated with Salman and his family members have taken more than Tk聽45,000 crore in loans from eight different banks.
In addition to Janata Bank, Salman and his associates have borrowed Tk聽11,000 crore from IFIC Bank, where Salman also serves as chairman.
The other loans include Tk 1,838 crore from Sonali Bank, Tk聽965 crore from Rupali Bank, Tk聽1,409 crore from Agrani Bank, Tk聽2,952 crore from National Bank, Tk聽661 crore from EXIM Bank and Tk聽605 crore from AB Bank.
Most of these loans were reportedly taken without adequate collateral, raising concerns about recoverability.
鈥楤esides, the recovery process of bad loans is time consuming,鈥� observed the BB governor.
He said that agents might be appointed in future to recover the bad loans.
The process may begin after receiving recommendations from the proposed commission on the banking sector.
The BB governor also said that the recovery of the smuggled-out money was also a time-consuming process since the tracking footprints of money outside own border was quite difficult.
Many international rules and regulations have to be maintained in this regard, he said, adding that they should start the process first.
