BB autonomy not hampered: Governor

The autonomy of the Bangladesh Bank has not been hampered and no one interferes in its operations, Governor Fazle Kabir has said.

Some newspapers have reported the central bank cannot work independently but this is not right, he said while unveiling the Monetary Policy Statement (MPS) for FY23 on Thursday.

Replying to a question, the central bank governor said every bank is not good and some are bad but the whole banking sector is under surveillance.

This was the last monetary policy announced by Fazle Kabir, whose tenure will end on Sunday. He joined as the 11th governor on March 20 in 2016 after the resignation of Atiur Rahman.

When asked about irregularities at the fourth generation Union Bank, the governor said the bank’s problems have been reported in a newspaper. “The bank is under our supervision.”

Fazle Kabir said he had joined the Bangladesh Bank during a challenging time caused by the reserve heist and the subsequent Covid-19 pandemic was also a big challenge for him.

Replying to another question, he said bureaucrats are not bad as central bank governors. He wished success for the upcoming governor Abdur Rouf Talukder, who is also a bureaucrat.

A journalist asked him why no big scams were unearthed during his tenure. The governor replied, “The central bank continues its inspection of banks in full swing. We did not reduce the scale of inspections.”