Central bank turns to tech

Bangladesh Bank has decided to introduce modern technology to detect highly abnormal transactions like that of Hall-Mark.
“We will introduce a dashboard in Bangladesh Bank by next month to see different indicators, including abnormal transactions, of banks,” SK Sur Chowdhury, deputy governor of the central bank, said at a discussion on the situation in the banking sector and macroeconomic challenges yesterday.
Dashboard is an electronic instrument where key banking indicators are displayed with different graphical elements, the BB deputy governor told the discussion organised by Economic Reporters' Forum at Jatiya Press Club in the capital.
His remarks came following observations that the central bank's weak monitoring and lack of pre-emptive measures leave scope for financial scams like the Hall-Mark one.
“We had no tool to detect abnormality in transactions,” said Chowdhury.
He blamed Sonali Bank's weak internal control system for the Hall-Mark scam.
“It was an uncommon forgery… no documents were maintained. Money was disbursed against vouchers only,” he said explaining why the Hall-Mark loans were not reflected in the BB's credit report.
Chowdhury also talked about the measures that the central bank has taken recently to strengthen its supervision.
The measures include curbing branch manager's unlimited power in handling inland letter of credit and bill purchase, and restriction on rescheduling of loans for more than three times.