Bangladesh Bank lowers caps on mobile phone cash transactions

Bangladesh Bank has lowered the limits on the number of times and the maximum amount that can be transacted through mobile payment method in a day or a month.

The central bank has also reminded the Mobile Financial Service (MFS) providers to follow an earlier guideline that forbids allowing multiple accounts against a single national identity card.

Instructions have been sent out to the chief executives of all banks allowing mobile banking facility and asked them to implement the new rule.

Some of the changes ordered by the circular are as follows:

>>Maximum deposit (cash-in) attempts per day to be limited to two, maximum permissible daily deposit (cash-in) is Tk 15,000. The maximum permissible  monthly cash-in attempt is 20 and the maximum amount depositable per month is Tk 100,000.

>>Maximum daily withdrawal attempts allowed is two and the maximum amount that can be withdrawn (cash out) per day is Tk 10,000. The monthly permissible withdrawal attempts is 10 and the maximum amount that can be withdrawn per month is Tk 50,000.

>>After cash-in has taken place through mobile, withdrawal of no more than Tk 5000 to be allowed within 24 hours of the cash-in having taken place.

Until now, a person could deposit a maximum of Tk 25,000 during each daily attempt, up to a maximum five times per day, while they could withdraw a maximum of 25,000 per attempt up to a maximum withdrawal attempt of three times per day.

Similarly, in a month, one could both deposit and withdraw a maximum of Tk 150,000 in 20 deposit or 10 withdrawal attempts.

>>The daily and monthly account-to-account transfers between individuals has been left unchanged at Tk 10,000 and Tk 25,000 respectively.

The circular, signed by Bangladesh Bank Payment Systems Department Manager Leela Rashid, observes that the mobile financial service is a rapidly growing system which has become popular among a wide section of society, especially the low-income group.

"However, allegations of its misuse by unscrupulous individuals have been received which is detrimental to the nation and the people," the circular observes.

The new circular is an amendment to two other circulars issued on Sep 1, 2013, and Nov 27, 2014, all aimed at curbing misuse and restoring order to the mobile financial system.

The circular issued Wednesday also reminded MFS providers of a clause of the 2014 circular that forbids allowing multiple accounts against single identity documents like national identity or voter identity cards in a single MFS provider.

The circular said any consumer with more than one account must discuss which account they want to continue with and shut the other(s) down after settling any outstanding dues.

If such a discussion fails or proves to be difficult, only the account using which the last transaction was made should be kept operational and the others closed down, the central bank has ruled.

While closing an account, it should be ensured that all outstanding amount due to the customer or otherwise, is settled beforehand.