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Roundup: Central bank of Bangladesh gets new chief after governor resigns over cyber heist

Xinhua, March 15, 2016 Adjust font size:

Hours after Bangladesh Bank (BB) Governor Atiur Rahman submitted his resignation letter on Tuesday, the country's Finance Minister AMA Muhith announced that the government is appointing a former finance secretary as the new central bank chief.

Atiur Rahman on Tuesday morning resigned from his post as the country's account at the U.S. Federal Reserve had been hacked and some 101 million U.S. dollars was stolen.

"Former Finance Secretary Fazle Kabir, who is now chairman of the state-owned Sonali Bank's board, will be the new chief of the central bank," Muhith told journalists on Tuesday evening.

"Everything has been finalized to appoint Fazle Kabir as the new Bangladesh Bank governor," he said.

Muhith said Kabir is all set to join as the new governor of the central bank after he returns home from the United States next week.

Apart from this, the Bangladeshi government also appointed two new directors to the Bangladesh Bank board.

BB spokesman AFM Asaduzzaman told journalists that a meeting of the board of directors with its two new members would be held soon to discuss the entire situation.

The heist came to light in Bangladesh only a couple of days ago following a media report in the Philippines though it occurred early last month.

Rahman has been criticized by keeping the Bangladeshi government in the dark for more than a month about the stealing that made headlines in the country and beyond.

The malware reportedly not merely hacked into the Bangladesh Bank system, but also destroyed the system on the computers itself, which are used by its officials to make transfer orders.

Muhith has come down hard on the central bank top officials as they didn't timely inform the government about the matter.

He said action will be taken against the central bank top officials.

Muhith informed the journalists that the government will form a three-member high-powered committee with Mohammed Farashuddin, a former governor of the central bank, to investigate the heist.

In a press briefing later in the day, Rahman said, "I've resigned as the Bangladesh Bank governor with immediate effect."

"I've resigned for the sake of the Bangladesh Bank," he added in the press briefing.

Rahman, who refrained from answering questions from the press pool in the briefing, said that the entire operational situation of Bangladesh Bank is now stable.

Some 101 million U.S. dollars worth of foreign reserves of the Bangladesh Bank, deposited with the U.S. central bank, was on Feb. 5 stolen by a racket of hackers and transferred to Sri Lanka and the Philippines.

Some 20 million U.S. dollars of the total stolen money has so far been recovered, sources close to central bank of Bangladesh had earlier said. Endit