A total of Tk 948.72 crore was siphoned off from two branches of the IFIC Bank Limited through providing term loans to three dubious housing and real estate companies in gross violation of the banking rules, a Bangladesh Bank (BB) inspection revealed.
The loans were disbursed to the three companies from the bank’s Gulshan and Principal branches between June 2017 and March 2019 through six loan accounts and the total amount of loans rose to Tk 1004.56 crore with interest at the time of the inspection, as not a single installment was paid by the borrowers till then.
The inspection report said the bank in its 711st meeting of the Board of Directors on 18 October, 2018 approved two ‘unusual’ loans worth total Tk 199.37 crore in two accounts of its Gulshan branch for Sristi Real Estate Ltd. The Board approved the loans without any mention of the names of the company Directors in the specified space of the loan proposal and allowed the borrowers to submit mortgage within six months after disbursement of the loan.
Similar loan worth Tk 84 crore was approved by the Board for Raj Housing Ltd. without mention of the names of company Directors and nothing was mentioned about mortgage or hypothecation in the approval note. The Raj Housing also received two other loans worth Tk 200 crore and Tk 60 crore from the same Gulshan branch in two separate loan accounts in the same year.
The Quick Real Estate Ltd. received loans worth Tk 349.72 crore from the Principal branch of IFIC Bank in the same manner.
The Board of Directors approved loans of four-year term in each of the six cases. But the BB inspection found all the loans were disbursed by the branches on five-year term.
The loans were applied for to build 250 full-furnished duplex building. But the BB inspection team found the amount taken from banks not in consistent with the works planned for.
The approval note also had no direction for monitoring by the head office or the concerned branches of the bank.
The inspection report said there was also allegation against Raj Housing of submitting land of graveyard and lands disappeared in river erosion as mortgage.
IFIC Bank’s Managing Director Shah Alam Sarwar was repeatedly contacted by The News Times through mobile phone and message for comments, but he didn’t respond.
Asked, BB Executive Director and spokesman Sirajul Islam said he cannot comment on this as he was not aware of the matter.
