Corporate misconduct that might have breached Australian laws also was not relayed to police or corporate regulators by bank officials, including an assistant governor, Frank Campbell, and Bob Rankin, a former assistant governor and now the bank's chief representative in Europe. The evidence of the cover-ups is contained in dozens of internal documents from the bank and the bank-note firms, including many seized by the federal police after executing search warrants. The documents challenge a statement in February by Mr Stevens to a federal parliamentary committee that ''no one in the Reserve Bank or on our board'' knew of corruption allegations involving Securency and NPA before they were revealed in May 2009. In another development, confidential documents obtained under freedom of information laws reveal that at the time Reserve officials were suppressing information about corruption, the Reserve board was given a written warning about NPA's conduct. In a statement last night, the Reserve denied the allegations and claimed they were based on ''inaccurate and incomplete facts'' but said specific details could not be addressed as the matters were, or were potentially, the subject of court proceedings.

The deputy Opposition Leader, Julie Bishop, said the latest revelations in volved serious allegations about breaches of domestic and foreign laws that, if proved, could seriously harm Australia's reputation. ''The government must take all necessary steps to ensure that anyone involved in corrupt behaviour or in attempting to cover up such behaviour be held accountable for their actions,'' she said. The Greens MP Adam Bandt said the revelations were ''astounding'' and he would ask the House of Representatives economics committee to recall Mr Stevens and other bank officials to explain how these new revelations sat with their previous evidence. ''The Treasurer can no longer stand to one side. He must immediately establish an inquiry to get to the bottom of these serious allegations,'' Mr Bandt said. Files held on the computer archives of the Reserve or its two subsidiaries confirm that senior bank officials on the board of NPA - a company fully owned and overseen by the Reserve - were aware that the firm had lied in tender documents given to the Nepal Central Bank. The documents contained false information about how much money NPA had funnelled to a Nepalese middleman in 2002 and 2004 to win bank-note contracts. The accurate disclosure of such commissions was required under Nepalese law.

In September 2007, the NPA board agreed that the hiding of the commissions from the Nepal central bank amounted to ''serious breaches'' but, in the same meeting, agreed not to disclose these breaches to Nepal for ''pragmatic'' reasons and on legal advice. Among the NPA board members involved in this decision were Mr Campbell, Mr Thompson - then the chairman of NPA and Securency - and the NPA managing director Chris Ogilvy, who was also a Securency director. Months earlier, the NPA board was warned the middleman might be using his commissions to pay bribes. Another cover-up occurred in 2007 after Mr Thompson, Mr Campbell and Mr Ogilvy discovered that the price of a bank-note contract had been artificially inflated to cover secret commissions to a Malaysian middleman. Again, rather than reporting this potentially illegal behaviour to police or corporate regulators, the serving and former Reserve officials on the boards of Securency and NPA agreed to handle it internally. The board of NPA contracted law firm Freehills to conduct an audit of corruption related concerns. The Reserve says Freehills found no breach of Australian law and therefore the bank did not need to notify police. Fairfax Media can also reveal:

In 2007, Mr Thompson personally authorised a payment of almost $500,000 to a Malaysian middleman only months after the agent was sacked by NPA over corruption concerns; Mr Thompson, Mr Campbell, Mr Ogilvy and other Reserve officials were told in writing in 2007 that the Malaysian middleman was paying kickbacks with NPA funds, but did not alert police; Mr Rankin was warned in writing in 2008 of corruption and serious misconduct at NPA but did not alert police or the Australian Securities and Investments Commission; In 2007 and 2008, Mr Battellino was told of serious corruption concerns at NPA but did not alert police and directed staff to handle concerns internally.

Mr Campbell was asked by another Malaysian agent to ensure NPA paid him his commissions because the agent - a former ruling political party treasurer - said he had used his personal influence with Malaysian politicians to win the firms major contracts. The first call any Reserve official placed to police about corruption was by Mr Rankin in May 2009, after Fairfax published a story. In July, federal police charged NPA, Securency and several former executives with bribery offences in Malaysia, Vietnam and Indonesia. They allege the commissions received by several middleman were used to pay millions of dollars in bribes. Police have not charged any Reserve officials or appointees to the boards of its subsidiaries. A federal police spokesman said the investigation was continuing. Documents released under FOI include a confidential memo presented to the Reserve board in October 2007 which stated: ''There has been a long history of concern, including that expressed by the audit committee and the RBA board, that the laxity of the control environment at NPA has been at serious odds with the careful risk-management culture of the bank and that these cultural deficiencies potentially expose the bank to serious reputational and financial risk.'' In February, Mr Stevens told a parliamentary committee: ''As far as I can see, the board members that we appointed from our side [the Reserve Bank] have acted properly; I am yet to see evidence to the contrary. ''We are examining ourselves. A question would be, is there any way that anyone in the RBA ever knew anything about anything? I am pretty sure the answer to that is no. Quite a bit of work is being done to go back through records. You would expect us to do that and we have done that.''

The Reserve's statement last night said: ''The bank categorically denies the allegations, which are based on inaccurate and incomplete facts. We do not seek to address the specific detail of your allegations since these matters are, or are potentially, the subject of court proceedings and give rise to risks of contempt. ''As set out in the bank's statement of 10 August to The Age, the NPA board, in 2007 sought the appropriate information, sought appropriate advice, responded appropriately to the information it received, and reasonably relied on the advice it received. As the Freehills investigation in 2007 concluded there was no breach of Australian law, the question of referral to the AFP did not arise. ''No material was brought to the attention of Reserve Bank officers in 2008 that had not been provided to the NPA board, the auditors and Freehills, and rigorously investigated, in 2007. ''The AFP has stated on 1 July that no RBA board members have been involved in any wrongdoing and that the charges against the companies are not a reflection of board members being complicit in or having knowledge of any illegal activity.''