Another $7.2m might be recovered

The central bank hopes to recover another $7.2 million out of the $81 million stolen from its reserve account with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in 2016.

About $14.45 million has so far been recovered, said Bangladesh Bank Fazle Kabir while unveiling the monetary policy statement for the second half of fiscal 2017-18 yesterday.

The court in the Philippines, where the hacked amount went to, has issued an asset preservation order to return $1.2 million to Bangladesh and a civil forfeiture case has been filed for recovering another $6 million.

A joint team of the central bank and the Criminal Investigation Department yesterday left for the Philippines to complete the formalities.

Kabir also touched upon the proposals for new banks.

“There is no reason to stop new banks from starting operations. In a free economy, no business can be stopped,” he said, adding that there is no reason to think that the new banks will create problems for the sector.