Comply with KYC rules in 10 days

The central bank has asked the banks providing mobile financial services (MFS) to comply with KYC (Know Your Customer) rules within 10 working days, officials said.
The directive was given at a meeting of chief executive officers (CEOs) of mobile banking service providing banks and organisations held at the central bank headquarters in Dhaka on Sunday with Executive Director of Bangladesh Bank (BB) M Mahfuzur Rahman in the chair.
"We've issued the directive to check money laundering and terrorist financing activities by using MFS," Mr Rahman told the FE after the meeting. "It will also help to check fraudulent activities by using fake mobile banking accounts."
He also said the central bank will take stern action against any bank found involved in terrorist financing by using MFS.
"No mobile banking account can be opened without complying with KYC rules properly," the BB executive director noted.
Besides, the BB asked the CEOs of all mobile banking service providing banks and organisations to inform the Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU) of the central bank about compliance with the KYC rules within the stipulated timeframe.
The central bank has already given permission to 28 commercial banks for running their mobile banking business across the country.
"Of them, 19 commercial banks have already started mobile banking by using mobile phone network," another executive director of the BB said.
He also said the banks will be responsible for mitigation of all kinds of risks such as liquidity risk, operational risk, fraud risk including money laundering and terrorist financing risks.
Under the existing guidelines, the country's bank-led model will offer an alternative to conventional branch-based banking to un-banked population through appointed agents facilitated by the Mobile Phone Network Operators (MNOs) or solution providers.
The banks and its partners will have to comply with the existing Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Combating the Financing of Terrorism (CFT)-related laws, regulations and guidelines issued by the central bank from time to time, according to the guidelines.
Earlier on September 26, 2011, the BB introduced fresh guidelines on MFS aiming to bring the poor and 'un-banked' people under banking network at an affordable cost.
 "The mobile banking activities have become popular in Bangladesh. The growth of such transaction has increased rapidly," another BB official said.
More than 25.25 million people have opened accounts so far to avail the MFS which is growing day by day, according to the central banker.
The banks are providing MFS to their clients through 0.54 million agents across the country. The average daily transaction is now about Tk 3.50 billion.
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