Tk 92,261 crore embezzled in 24 banking scams in last 15 years: CPD

About Tk 92,261 crore was embezzled in 24 major banking scams in a period between 2008 to 2023, as per the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD).

Several banks are clinically dead but have been kept alive through bailout, the think-tank said and recommended giving go-ahead to close down banks that are on the verge of collapse.

The embezzled amount is equivalent to 12 percent of Bangladesh's national budget of 2023-24 fiscal year or 2 percent of the country's gross domestic product for 2022-23 fiscal year.

The CPD shared the data in a press conference on the banking sector as an interim government led by Nobel Prof Muhammad Yunus sworn in following the fall and exit of Sheikh Hasina from Bangladesh in the face of a mass uprising on August 5.

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Unrest in banking sector raises concerns

The CPD said the banking sector, a vital pillar of the economy, suffers from vulnerability over time manifested through high loan defaults.

Regrettably, the previous government did not keep its commitments to safeguard the banking sector expressed in various policy documents and election manifesto.

"Several previously good banks have experienced a misfortune decline in their performance after hostile takeovers by crony capitalists," said Fahmida khatun, executive director of the CPD, while presenting a paper co-authored by CPD Research Fellow Syed Yusuf Sadat.

At the briefing, CPD Distinguished Fellow Prof Mustafizur Rahman, Research Director Khondaker Golam Moazzem, Senior Research Fellow Towfiqul Islam Khan were present among others.