3. Anatomy of the Hall Mark Incidence
As is revealed from the previous section, higher credit expansion, increased profitability, lower non-performing assets and increased financial inclusion have contributed to an improved banking system during the past decade. The regulatory framework has supported this growth to a large extent. It may be worth to note that at a time when major economies of the world are under tremendous pressure due to the second wave of financial crisis and bankruptcy of financial institutions and sovereign debt crisis, the banking sector of Bangladesh has been navigating through in a resilient manner.
However, recent shocks in the banking sector have exposed the vulnerability of the seemingly resilient financial systems in the country. Despite some positive results initially after the reform in 2007, the SCBs unfortunately could not sustain the momentum due to poor supervisory capacity and weak institutional framework. As a result, not only these banks are suffering from shortages of capital but their profitability has also started to decline (Table 3). Additionally, incidences of irregularities have weakened the overall performance and threatened the stability of the banking industry. The recently detected Hall Mark case of forgery through inland bills trade involving the largest SCB of the country Sonali Bank Limited (SBL), is a testimony to poor management, weak internal control and risk management, and above all total lack of governance on the part of the bank. Shocks in the banking sector of such nature and extent will only hamper the growth of the banking industry but can risk the economic growth of the country. This is the most despicable financial forgery in the banking history of Bangladesh which has surpassed all the earlier cases of misappropriation of resources from banks
Unauthorised Loans and Advances: A Record of Sonali Bank