Bombarded with criticisms on how he handled the country's biggest ever cyber theft, Bangladesh Bank Governor Atiur Rahman returned to Bangladesh yesterday from a three-day trip to New Delhi.
Throughout the day, speculations ran wild about the fate of the central bank chief and what would be discussed at today's scheduled emergency board meeting of the bank.
But soon after he landed in the afternoon, Atiur cancelled the meeting; he also spoke with the finance minister over phone.
Officials of the bank seemed worried yesterday as rumours gripped the headquarters about the fate awaiting the governor. The rumours were triggered when Finance Minister AMA Muhith slammed Bangladesh Bank on Sunday, saying action would be taken against the bank as it took too much time to inform the ministry about the fund hacking.
Atiur was called to the Finance Ministry soon after he landed at Dhaka airport at 4:30pm, but he spoke to the minister over the phone instead. The governor also cancelled today’s emergency board meeting that had been called by Finance Secretary M Aslam Alam on Sunday.
The central bank’s spokesperson, Executive Director Subhankar Saha, confirmed that the government had cancelled the meeting.
However, just hours earlier, Subhankar told reporters that the issue of cyber theft would be discussed at the scheduled emergency meeting.
Atiur has received strong criticism in the past few days for not disclosing for nearly a month that $101m had been stolen from Bangladesh Bank’s reserve account at Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
Directors of the Bangladesh Bank board and the Finance Ministry have blamed the governor for keeping the cyber theft a secret.