Total reserve heist money will be recovered: BB Governor

Bangladesh Bank Governor Fazle Kabir said, the total amount of money which was stolen from Bangladesh Bank (BB) reserve will be recovered. Process is going on in this connection. There is no doubt over the matter.

He said this while declaring monetary policy of the first quarter of the current fiscal year on Tuesday.

On February 4, 2016, hackers stole 10 crore 10 lakh dollars of BB from Federal Reserve Bank of USA through swift code. Of the amount 2 crore dollars was transferred to Sri Lanka and 8 crore 10 lakh dollars was transferred to Philippine casino.

By the time BB managed to recover 1 crore 45 lakh 40 thousand dollars. Although two and half years have passed but BB yet to recover rest of the money.

Responding to a question of newsmen BB Governor said, we have managed to recover 15 million dollars and the matter of recovering 51 million dollars is under trial. We will be able to recover the money if the matter is solved in Philippine court. Total amount of money will be recovered. There is no doubt over this.

BB Deputy Governor and BFI Chief Abu Hena Mohammad Razi Hasan said, an appeal verdict is pending in Philippine court. If the appeal is solved then the 51 million dollars will be recovered. And the money which is not detected yet is in process to detect.

In fear of excess money flow during the period of election the monetary policy of 2018-19 fiscal year’s first quarter (July-December) was declared cautiously.

In the new monetary policy the credit growth for private sector till December 2018 is fixed at 16.8 percent. Government credit growth is estimated at 10.4 percent. The target of internal credit growth is fixed at 15.9 percent.

In the budget of 2018-19 fiscal year the GDP growth rate is fixed at 7.8 percent.

The central bank formulates and publishes the monetary policy twice a year to control inflation and to attain the desired growth and to keep balance between those. It used to publish the first quarter in the first month of fiscal year (July) and the second quarter is published in January.

During the program the BB high officials delivered speech on different issues like logicality of interest rate of savings certificate, gold alteration, reducing bank interest rate at 9 and 6 percent and money laundering.

BB Governor Fazle Kabir said, there are 6 tier security and 42 CC cameras in Bangladesh Bank vault. There is no chance of gold alteration. What happened was a misunderstanding.

BB Deputy Governors Abu Hena Mohammad Razi Hasan, SM Moniruzzaman, BB Chain Management Advisor Allah Malik Kazmi, Banking Reform Advisor SK Sur Chowdhury, Chief Economist Dr. Faisal Ahmed, Financial Advisor Md. Akhtaruzzaman and others were present on the occasion.

AH