Dhaka, July 11 -- In a major move to curb irregularities in foreign exchange operations and stamp out illicit financial flows, Bangladesh Bank (BB) has launched a comprehensive special inspection targeting some commercial banks, central bank sources revealed.

The central bank has formed six separate inspection teams to intensely scrutinize the treasury and information technology (IT) divisions of the selected commercial institutions. The banks currently under oversight are state-owned Sonali Bank, Janata Bank, and Agrani Bank, alongside private sector lenders BRAC Bank, Prime Bank, and HSBC Bangladesh.

The regulatory intervention follows recent allegations of foreign payment discrepancies at a state-owned commercial bank. Central bank i...