Illegal money transaction thru mobile banking rampant

Unregistered SIMs (subscriber-identification module) are now being used widely in mobile banking service, causing serious concern about illegal transaction of money, officials concerned said.
They said some criminals are now using unregistered mobile SIMs and fake national identity (ID) cards for opening accounts with banks providing mobile money-transfer services.
In recent times, the law-enforcement agencies have detected a good number of such cases.
They said more than 90 per cent of mobile banking accounts have been opened without verifying the subscribers' addresses properly.
According to the law-enforcement agencies, more than 78 per cent of mobile SIMs across the country have no registration and these are being used for money transaction through mobile banking.
Bangladesh Bank (BB) data showed that the number of mobile bank accounts is 27 million while the active accounts 12 million and the number of agents is 0.54 million.
A total of 28 banks have taken permission for mobile banking from the central bank and 19 of these have started providing mobile financial services (MFS).
Brac Bank's bKash, DBBL mobile banking, IBBL's Mcash, Prime Bank's Easy Cash, National Commerce and Credit (NCC) Bank Ltd's Sure Cash, Mercantile Bank Ltd's my cash and Trust Bank's Mobile Money are providing mobile banking services.
The BB data also showed around Tk 3.50 billion being transacted per day.
"The law-enforcement agencies are getting more than 350 complaints a month about illegal money transaction through mobile banking across the country," an official of a specialised branch of a police unit told the FE.
He said the criminals are using unregistered SIMs or fake addresses to open the mobile money-transfer accounts. They are taking toll on illegal money transaction.
"As the criminals are using unregistered mobile SIMs and fake NID cards, the law enforcers cannot track them down."   
The official said most of the criminals use bKash and Dutch-Bangla Bank's mobile money services as the two are prominent mobile financial-service providers in the country with around 6 million accountholders.
Sarwar Alam, secretary of Bangladesh Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (BTRC), said the commission has instructed the mobile operators several times to control the illegal money transaction, but they have paid no heed.
The commission is trying its level best to reduce financial crimes being committed through mobile banking.
Subhankar Saha, executive director of Bangladesh Bank (BB), said the central bank is going to take necessary measures to check illegal transaction of money through mobile banking.
BB is closely monitoring the situation in context of various cases of embezzlement and irregularities in the mobile-banking sector, he said, adding that the central bank has recently asked the mobile-phone operators to control the sales of unregistered SIMs.
He expressed the hope that it would help reduce the illegal mobile money transaction.
The Bangladesh Bank data showed that it is very difficult to reach formal financial services to rural areas, home to more than 70 per cent of the country's population.
Less than 30 per cent of Bangladeshis are connected to the formal banking system while over 68 per cent have mobile-phone sets.
Syed Talat Kamal, spokesman for Grameenphone (GP), said they are selling all mobile SIMs with registration. For mobile-SIM registration, he said, they are taking NID cards, but they could not verify them.
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