The Bangladesh Bank has served show-cause notices on a good number of officials, asking them to explain how could media outlets published reports based on the central bank’s findings on several banking scams.
Some 10 officials have faced the notices in the last couple of weeks, sources said in the central bank.
This is an unprecedented move taken by the ongoing central bank high-ups as such action was never seen previously, said a number of Bangladesh Bank officials seeking anonymity.
The officials, who faced the show-cause notice, do not have any relationship with the reporters in most of the cases, they said.
A deputy governor of the central bank has played a pivotal role in issuing the show-cause notice, creating a panic among the central bankers.
The BB stance has given an indication that it is now trying to conceal release of information on scams that are now occurring in the banking sector, the officials said.
Contacted, Md Serajul Islam, spokesperson of BB, said the central bank usually sends the financial scam related information to the banks, which were involved in the scams, by issuing letters.
Such corruption related information might have been disclosed from the banks, he said.
Besides, no central bank official is allowed to share any information with media outlets, as BB has assigned spokesperson to do so, he said.
The matter of the show-cause notice given to the officials will be resolved after the reception of their response, Islam said.
The banking regulator had restricted entrance of journalists to the central bank headquarters soon after Abdur Rouf Talukder’s joining as BB governor on July 12.
The decision, however, was withdrawn later.
