Around $250,000 has been looted from Sonali Bank in the middle of last year through hacking the state-run bank’s password, a senior government official said yesterday.
The bank’s online server was hacked to transfer the amount of money to other accounts, Banking and Financial Institutions Division Secretary Dr Aslam Alam told the annual conference of the bank at a hotel in Dhaka.
The online security of the bank is now under threat.
Aslam revealed the information at a meeting in presence of Finance Minister AMA Muhith and other senior officials, stressing the need for strengthening of the bank’s risk management system to avoid recurrence of such incident.
Dr AHM Habibur Rahman, chairman of the bank’s board of directors, presided over the meeting.
Aslam mentioned the incident of Kishoreganj Sonali Bank heist on January 24.
The incidents could have been averted if there were appropriate security measures, he said.
The chairman also suggested bringing changes to business strategy of Sonali Bank and said the bank should give attention to providing loans to small and medium entrepreneurs, rather than attaching priority to giving large loans.
The bank should pay utmost attention to coordinated core banking, he said.
In his address, the finance minister said the Hallmark scam took place in 2012 because of weakness in internal control system.
He emphasised the need for internal supervision and control in the state-owned banks to ensure good governance.
“The banks must give due attention to their internal supervision and control to stop recurrence of such incidents,” he said.
Muhith said a risk-free environment must be ensured to provide clients with uninterrupted services.
The banks must be careful so that their online services could not be hampered in the wake of any technical glitches, he added.
“Bangladesh’s banking sector is now standing on a strong base and it has witnessed a massive expansion … what we need now is to ensure quality services for people,” he added.
Deposit collection was not the only duty of banks, Muhith said, adding that the prime responsibility of the banks was to use the idle money properly.
In this regard, he suggested bankers use their own innovative business ideas.
According to the Sonali Bank officials, the recovery of bank’s default loans significantly improved in 2013 as it realised default loans worth Tk5,176 crore.
Sonali Bank has also declared 2014 as the year of business development and recovery of default loans.
