BB teams to rifle suspect loans
Bangladesh Bank (BB) will send 50 inspection teams to commercial banks that took out more than Tk 20 crore in industrial loans to expose diverters of funds into the share market.
Prior BB probes found that about Tk 34 crore in industrial loans were diverted into the stockmarket by commercial banks, violating BB rules.
The central bank is threatening to punish those who use industrial loans for stockmarket speculation, including deducting an equal amount from the bank's calculation of its present capital.
The central bank yesterday issued a warning letter to the managing director of a bank for such a violation. It directed the top management of the bank to punish the specific officials involved in violating Islamic Sharia directives.
Despite sluggish investment last year, industrial credit soared 30 percent, or Tk 59 billion, over the fiscal year before.
A central bank high official said he suspects a large portion of the industrial credit was spent in the share market or on other unauthorised purposes.
In a preliminary investigation, BB found that nearly Tk 30 crore taken as industrial loans via three accounts at Exim Bank's Gulshan branch was invested in the stockmarket.
The BB directed Exim's managing director to "realise" the loan, forcing those involved to repay within one month.
The BB letter said that by sanctioning the loans Exim had violated Islamic Sharia rules. The central bank directed Exim to punish those involved and report back within a month.
The BB says it found several recent violations:
*A loan to Kazi Erfanur Rahman was deposited to his current account but never spent on commodities. Nine cheques later shifted nearly Tk 20 crore to the stock trading accounts of Anchor Securities and Md Fakhrul Islam Securities.
*A loan to Load Star Packaging was deposited into a current account before eight cheques totalling Tk 7.45 crore shunted the funds into the share market.
*A loan to B&B Sales and Marketing was deposited to a current account from which Tk 2.45 crore was invested in the market through a bank transfer and cheques.
Earlier, BB inspectors found that Tk 3.50 crore was invested in the share market by Anlima Yarn Dyeing, an industrial borrower from Sonali Bank's Ramna corporate branch.
The Banking Companies Act specifies that no bank can invest more than 10 percent of its liabilities in the share market. The BB directed 12 banks that invested more than this to wind down their excesses by yesterday. It said it would punish any banks which failed to respect the limit.
Comments