A fraud ring has embezzled Tk25 lakh by exploiting the National Savings Certificate (NSC) system, Bangladesh Bank officials reported on 29 October.
The scam was detected in transactions involving certificates purchased at the Bangladesh Bank’s Motijheel office in Dhaka. The central bank successfully intercepted and blocked a subsequent attempt by the same group to withdraw an additional Tk50 lakh.
Preliminary investigations indicate the fraudulent transaction was carried out using the passwords of officials responsible for operating the Savings Certificate system.
“It appears preliminarily that this fraud occurred through the use of the password of the personnel who operate the Savings Certificate system. We are identifying the accounts into which the money was transferred and those involved in the fraud, and a case will be filed,” Mohammad Shahriar Siddiqui, assistant spokesperson for Bangladesh Bank, told reporters.
The central bank has filed a General Diary (GD) with Motijheel police station and is preparing to lodge a formal complaint.
How the Heist Occurred
Senior central bank officials detailed how the initial Tk25 lakh was stolen. Last Thursday, an individual purchased a Tk25 lakh NSC from the Motijheel office. Four days later, on Monday, the certificate was prematurely redeemed.
The money was first transferred to an account at NRBC Bank’s Dinajpur sub-branch before being quickly withdrawn from the bank’s Shyamoli branch in Dhaka.
On the same day, the syndicate attempted to encash two additional NSCs — Tk30 lakh via Dutch-Bangla Bank and Tk20 lakh via NRB Bank — using the same fraudulent method. These attempts were flagged by Bangladesh Bank and successfully blocked.
Primary Investigation
During the investigation, the central bank contacted the buyers of the three involved NSCs. All confirmed that they had neither applied for encashment nor received any one-time passwords (OTP) on their mobile phones, indicating an internal system breach.
Following this, the three Bangladesh Bank officials who held the passwords necessary to sell and process the Savings Certificates at Motijheel have been removed from their duties and replaced.
Central bank officials stated that, as the fraud was carried out using authorised passwords, the officials with access are under surveillance. The investigation is also examining whether any external parties were involved in the sophisticated scheme.
The National Savings Directorate reports that total outstanding Savings Certificates held across authorised institutions, including banks and post offices, stood at Tk3,40,071 crore as of August. These instruments are bought and encashed through nearly 12,000 branches nationwide.