Badrul Huda Sohel :
Among many, two recent reports on banking arena published in different media have deepened our concern where one shows that Tk 1.50 crore deposited by the clients of Adamdighi’s Chapapur Islami Bank Agent Outlet in Bogura has missing.
Just two days later, such terrifying news in almost all media on June 3 became one of the talks the country headlining 149 bhori gold that went missing from the locker of Islami Bank in Chattogram.
The missing gold would amount to Tk 1.42 crore if they were18 karat in today’s market, and Tk 1.74 crore in case of 22 karat. Be it the bank or the clients, both the alarming news not only makes extreme disappointment and anxiety among us, but also forms panic. I will discuss this in detail at the end.
Before that I want to go back a bit. Being a teacher of literature, I know I may lack in the ideas on banking operations and their relevant disciplines, but I, of course, lack no interest in it. A regular glance at the financial pages of the newspapers does not leave me at least to know that some banks in the country, more or less, have been paralised and fragile today.
At the beginning of the year, in a bid to overcome this fragility of the banking sector, Bangladesh Bank, the central bank of the country, itself listed the country’s commercial banks as weak, strong or medium in different colors based on their financial strengths and standards taking different criteria into account.
Though Bangladesh Bank took the initiative to reduce defaulted loans with a view to establishing good governance in the sector, for some banks such color division has become the color of Holi game, a popular and significant Hindu festival celebrated as the festival of colors, and for some banks it becomes the color of disgrace and stigma.
After the announcement, the conditions of weak banks marked by the central bank are going to the south as the depositors inclined to draw their deposits out of fear. ICB Islamic Bank, the bank that tried to mold its policy with new names in different phases, faces the first impact of it due to liquidity crisis as news reads the bank is failing to pay even a small amount to its ordinary depositors.
Today, it is not only liquidity or financial crisis, but overcoming the crisis of clients’confidence is now a big challenge for some of them.
The second blow to these weaker banks came when the central bank advised the top brass of the institutions to merge theirs with stronger counterparts though many analysts differed from the policy of merger system the central bank suggested.To comply with the suggestions, many of them agreed to the merger process despite reluctance in some cases.
In the journey, it is far from overcoming the crisis of confidence of weak bank customers, now they are suffering from their own identity crisis- which is why it goes like pouring water on a drowned mouse.
Regular clients are suffering from the anxiety of withdrawing money from one bank and depositing it in another today or in the third bank next day thinking of security of their deposits, and as a result of which the central bank has now moved slightly away from the merger process decision.
In 2014, the incident of theft of money in filmy style by making a long tunnel in Sonali Bank of Kishoreganj awakened us all. Its continuity is not over. One incident after another is happening with a phase. Evidence of the involvement of bank officials has also been found in many cases.
However, before the last Eid-ul-Fitr, through the incident of Sonali Bank in Ruma, Bandarban, the incident of bank theft has now turned into a robbery. Just when the security of the money deposited in the bank arouses questions, the news of sudden missing of 149 bhori gold from the locker of Islami Bank in Chawkbazar, Chattogram has doubled the panic.
Through this mishap fright has now entered the bank vault lockers from the bank accounts of the depositors. Customers hire bank lockers mainly to store valuable documents, papers and ornaments in order to ensure their valuables for maximum security.
It is customary in our country that all want to lock the stable-door when the steed is stolen. Which supernatural theory the Bangladesh Bank, in fact, is applying to resolve the irregularities keeping the clients’ interests in mind is not clear. Against the backdrop, the way to central bank used by the journalists has now been made uneven sprinkling thorns.
The regulatory bank cannot avoid the responsibility of any kind regarding anomalies or irregularities. It should be remembered that if the country’s banks are the wheels of the economy, then the steering is in the hands of Bangladesh Bank to control the speed of those wheels. Just as it is not desirable for a bank’s reputation to be tarnished through no fault of its own, it is also not desirable for customers to be embittered or harassed.