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The Hallmark-scam deadlock will be resolved by next year, either by liquidating its assets or setting up special economic zone on the mortgaged land, says Sonali Bank whose huge money got stuck.
Officials of the country's largest state-owned commercial bank are hopeful that around Tk25 to 30 billion would be recovered from the assets if sold out.
"We have been able to bring assets, including lands, in our possession through court verdict related to Hallmark case," said the bank's MD and CEO, Md Ataur Rahman, at a press conference arranged Wednesday on the occasion of celebration of the bank's 50 years in operation.
Replying to a question at the press meet at the bank's headquarters in Dhaka, Mr Rahman said the scam was a "shock" for the bank and it learnt a lesson from the loan fraud.
"There hasn't been any scam since Hallmark scam due to improvement in our governance," the MD said.
The amount embezzled by the upstart company, Hallmark, has been determined to be Tk35.46 billion taken out from the then Ruposhi Bangla Hotel branch of the Sonali Bank (now hotel InterContinental Dhaka) between 2010 and 2012.
Of the amount, Tk18.37 billion is funded and Tk17.09 billion non-funded.
The Anti-Corruption Commission has filed around 50 cases against Hallmark for the funded portion of the case.
However, he dismissed the perception that Hallmark was the reason for capital shortfall of the bank.
The CEO of the bank said the capital shortfall in the bank is only on 'paper'. In real terms, he said, the value of the services the bank offers to the government projects free-of-cost and other initiatives would come to much more than the bank's existing capital shortfall.
"For example, we didn't take commission on Rooppur Power Plant project L/C amounting Tk 50 billion," he said.
He reminds that this is a government bank -- the government takes the profit. So, loss also will be compensated by the government. He would like to see shortfall of capital go away and balance accounting.
The CEO said the bank has been consistently a partner in country's growth and wants to remain so, always.
According to its official account, the profit of the bank increased by Tk1.35 billion in 2021 from the previous year.
The bank's remittance inflow has also increased significantly, from $2.53 million in February to $4.21 million in March last. Sonali Bank arranged the press meet to present its performance during the first quarter of the current calendar year.
The bank earned an operating profit of Tk 5.68 billion during the Jan-March period as against Tk 4.33 billion in the same period of last year. Bank's lending also was up by Tk 112.79 billion in the first quarter of 2022. The deposit went up by Tk 47.77 billion during the period under review.