Bangladesh Bank on Thursday asked Grameenphone not to make agreement with agents to operate its mobile financial service, Mobicash, as it (Grameenphone) is not authorised to do it in line with the central bank’s guidelines on mobile financial services, said BB officials.
The central bank also asked the mobile phone operator to stop its media advertisement of Mobicash as the content of the campaign created confusion in the financial sector.
BB officials said the central bank would stop the activities of Mobicash if Grameenphone fails to follow the BB’s directives.
The decisions came from a meeting between BB governor Atiur Rahman and Grameenphone chief executive officer Vivek Sood at the BB headquarters in the capital.
BB governor Atiur Rahman told New Age on Thursday that the central bank had asked the Grameenphone CEO not to make any agreement with agents to run its mobile financial services as only scheduled banks are authorised to do it.
‘The country’s mobile financial service is completely bank-led and other organisations including telephone operators are not allowed to lead the service,’ he said.
The BB asked Grameenphone to deposit clients’ money which has already been transacted through Mobicash with the banks, he said.
Atiur said, ‘The BB has asked Grameenphone to change its media advertisement as the content of the advertisement contradicts with the bank-led MFS model.’
The central bank will stop Mobicash’s activities if Grameenphone fails to comply with the BB directives, the central bank governor said.
A BB official said Mobicash had recently appointed agents to run its mobile financial service.
The agents of Mobicash have started to open accounts of mobile financial services on behalf of banks, creating confusion in the banking sector.
The BB has separate guidelines for agent banking and if any entity wants to run banking through agents, it will have to follow the agent banking guidelines, the BB official said.
According to the central bank’s approval, Mobicash can operate three types of service — ticket purchasing for cricket match, ticket buying for train and payment of utility bills on behalf of the clients.
Asked, Grameenphone chief corporate affairs officer Mahmud Hossain told New Age that GP would comply with the directives of the BB regarding Mobicash service.
‘We have a very fruitful meeting and have sorted out the concerns. We and the central bank have come to an agreement about settling the concerns over Mobicash,’ he said.
-With New Age input
