ISLAMABAD: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has initiated an inquiry into the matter of giving loans by the National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) to its own employees and then paying huge sums to lawyers for recovery of the loans.

The agency’s commercial banks circle has issued notice to the NBP’s compliance department over the double loss suffered by the bank and also asked it to spell out the measures usually taken by the management in such cases. The agency also wanted to know details about the collateral secured by the bank at the time of granting loans to employees.

The FIA conducted the investigation after a number of individuals complained that the NBP was not coming out with details about the lawyers hired by it for recovery of loans in response to requests submitted by them under the Right to Information Act.

The queries put to the management include one about professional fees paid to lawyers exceeding Rs300,000 and whether the bank followed the guidelines spelt out by the law ministry for such instances.

The FIA told the management to submit details about permissions granted by the NBP board for acquiring the services of lawyers.

The NBP has yet to submit a reply to the FIA queries.

Published in Dawn, December 22nd, 2024