SBP imposes heavy fines on commercial banks over law violations

KARACHI: The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has imposed heavy fines on commercial banks over the violation of regulations during the period of July to September this year, the spokesperson said in a statement on Tuesday.

The spokesperson said in a statement that fines are imposed on 17 commercial banks over different violations of laws including anti-money laundering, information collection of consumers and foreign exchange rules.

The central bank has also released the list of the banks faced fines over failure to comply with the regulations.

According to the spokesperson, the central bank imposed fines on commercial banks up to Rs1.12 billion which is the highest ever figure in history. In July, fines are imposed on four commercial banks up to Rs184.6 million and Rs805 million on 10 commercial banks in August. Moreover, three commercial banks faced the imposition of fines Rs133.3 million in September this year.

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Earlier on October 2, The federal government had decided to collect a complete record of the buyers of the US dollar through exchange companies across the country.

A letter has been sent to the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) which sought a complete record of the foreign currency buyers.

The letter also stated that the revenue board had already sought the assistance of the central bank to trace such buyers, whereas, FBR is authorised to collect the required data of foreign currency buyers from the exchange companies.

It is also stated that the decision was taken to review the activities of bank exchange company under the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act. The central bank said that the federal government has already commenced carrying out a country-wide crackdown against dollar hoarding.