Bank officials directly involved in 67pc cases: BIBM study

A survey has found that bank officials are directly involved in 67 percent of forgeries in online banking.

Some 40 percent of such forgeries are jointly committed by bank officials and IT firms while 18 percent involve only bank officials, it said.

Bankers, in collusion with IT firms, commit the fraudulence putting online banking at risk, said a research -- based on over 50 fruaudulence incidents -- conducted by the Bangladesh Institute of Bank Management (BIBM).

BIBM released the research paper involving the survey at a workshop, “Alternative Delivery Chanel: Opportu-nities and Challenge of the New Banking Environment”, at its auditorium in the city yesterday.

Mahbubur Rahman, a BIBM assistant professor, presented the paper while Toufic Ahmad Choudhury, BIBM director general, chaired the session.

Online banking reduced banks' operation costs, said Abu Hena Mohd Razee Hassan, deputy governor of Bangladesh Bank.

He said only 2 lakh employees were operating thousands of bank branches across the country and, had online banking not been introduced, over 10 lakh people would have been needed to operate the same number of banks.

He termed the alternate banking system good, but added that abuse of the channel would bring diseaster for the sector. Banks will have to be aware of the abuse of technology to avert fraud and forgeries, he opined.

BIBM Supernumerary Professor Helal Ahmed Chowdhury emphasised technological skill development of bankers.

Bangladesh Bank should expand the facility for the opening of Tk 10 accounts for the financial inclusion of more people, he said.

Md Arfan Ali, president and managing director of Bank Asia, said the banking sector would face a serious crisis in the coming days if banks were not prepared to face techonological challenges.