The Bangladesh Bank will from now on publish information on service charge, fee and commission to be charged by banks, on its website, to check the practice of banks overcharging customers. A BB official told New Age on Thursday that the central bank had recently received a large number of complaints from clients of a number of banks that they were being charged in excess of amounts declared by the banks with the central bank.
‘For this reason, the BB will publish the schedule of charge list of every bank on its website so that they do not breach their statement,’ he said.
The BB has already taken initiative to create a separate link on its website to provide the banks’ service charge.
The BB gave directives to the managing directors and chief executive officers of all banks in the last bankers meeting, held on December 15 at the central bank headquarters, asking them to take initiative, in the quickest possible time, in this regard.
‘Clients will be able to compare the service charge of different banks which will help them make better decisions,’ he said.
The BB earlier issued a circular to all banks asking them to exhibit their service charge at all bank branches to inform clients and publish them on their respective websites.
The banks place their schedule of charges to the central bank every six months.
According to a bankers meeting minutes prepared by the central bank, BB deputy governor SK Sur Chowdhury said the banks have been allowed to impose service charge, fee and commission from their clients since 1990 as a consequence of open market economy.
However, the central bank set a maximum ceiling on charges like account maintenance fee, balance confirmation fee and letters of credit commission, he said.
In the bankers meeting, BB said that the central bank inspection team will check whether all branches of banks are displaying the charges’ list.
Another BB official said the central bank would take punitive measures against the banks if they did not display the list.
Financial Integrity and Customer Services Department, a wing of the central bank, frequently received allegations from clients that a majority of banks imposed charges higher than the ones declared with the BB.
The central bank earlier issued a number of letters to some banks to comply with their declared statement.
-With New Age input
