BANKING & FINANCE - March 12, 1992

Report Slams British Bank Regulators: A British parliamentary report on the Bank of Credit & Commerce International scandal accused the Bank of England and other regulators of acting too late to stop unprecedented fraud. The all-party Treasury Committee called for a shake-up in surveillance to prevent any other bank operating as an unpoliced clearinghouse for terrorists, drug dealers and criminals. Regulators are still unraveling the BCCI empire, founded in 1972 by Pakistani banker Agha Hasan Abedi, but say it may have swallowed as much as $10 billion in fraudulent deals.