Scrapping Of Mobile Banking Licence
BB warns Prime Bank over ‘misleading’ ad
Bangladesh Bank on Wednesday warned Prime Bank for publishing ‘misleading’ advertisement on the media about the central bank action cancelling the permission for its (Prime Bank) mobile financial services. The BB issued separate letters to managing director and chairman of the Prime Bank asking them to stop the ‘confusing’ advertisement. The central bank warned that it would take punitive measure against the bank if it continued with the campaign.
The BB cancelled the no objection certificate given to Prime Bank for operating its mobile banking on August 6 as the central bank found Prime responsible for the swindling of up to Tk 30 crore from 2,500 job seekers by the bank-appointed mobile banking service solution provider SMG Infocom.
A BB official told New Age on Wednesday that Prime Bank had published advertisement on various newspapers in the last few days saying that the central bank had cancelled the NOC of mobile financial services between Prime Bank and SMG Infocom.
The Prime Bank’s advertisement also said that the media reports about the cancelation of Prime Bank’s MFS were not correct.
Against the backdrop, the central bank on Wednesday it cancelled the NOC of MFS which was given to Prime Bank.
The BB had earlier conducted an inspection of the mobile financial services of Prime Bank where the central bank unearthed that SMG Infocom recruited around 2,500 people to operate mobile banking services of Prime Bank.
According to the inspection report, SMG Infocom, appointed by Prime Bank to operate its mobile banking Easy Cash, received Tk 25 crore to Tk 30 crore as undertaking money from the successful candidates for the job, using tricks.
The report said that SMG Infocom had closed its operation immediately after the recruitment leaving 2,500 people jobless but it had not refunded the undertaking money to those who were appointed.
The BB issued a show-cause notice to Prime Bank on April 7 asking it to explain why the central bank would not cancel NOC it had provided the bank to run mobile financial services for misappropriating a huge amount of money from 2,500 job seekers.
The central bank did not accept the reply of Prime Bank as Prime could not avoid the responsibility of SMG Infocom’s irregularities.
For this reason, the central bank finally cancelled the NOC of Prime Bank’s MFS.
Despite repeated attempts, Prime Bank managing director Md Ehsan Khasru could not be reached over the mobile phone on Wednesday evening.
-With New Age input
