The Bangladesh Bank on Sunday relaxed international card-based online payment system, backtracking on its move tightening the system after just 10 days amid heavy oppositions from banks and e-commerce businesses. The central bank issued a circular waiving a provision that had made prior approval of banks a must for a customer before making payment through international cards. It, however, kept its ban on payment by international cards for online casino or gambling, trading in forex or stock exchanges and purchase of cryptocurrency or lottery ticket. Besides, the bar on payments for purchase of goods and services originated in Bangladesh by using international cards will remain valid, it said. The revision of the BB’s move was made after it held a meeting with the banks and the Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services at the BB headquarters in Dhaka on the day. At the meeting, representatives of the BASIS mentioned that the provision of taking banks’ approval by the customers would hinder business of its members. Besides, bankers also mentioned that dealing with each customer’s Online Transaction Authorisation Form (OTAF) and taking measures based on the specification mentioned in OTAF would not be possible for them. BASIS president Syed Almas Kabir told New Age that he along with card division heads of 11 banks met the BB officials on Sunday. ‘We have informed the central bank about the problems the businesses were facing,’ he said, adding, ‘I am very much thankful to the central bank for taking immediate measures to solve the problems.’ Kabir said he proposed that the BB take measures to block merchant codes of all gambling sites and forex sites instead of bringing every customer under scrutiny. As the bankers agreed to the BASIS president’s proposal, the BB immediately instructed the banks to block such payments, Kabir said. Sunday’s BB circular said that it had decided to waive the OTAF formalities for online payments abroad through international cards. However, the BB advised the banks to take necessary arrangement to guard against illicit online payments abroad through international cards from Bangladesh. The BB decided to waive the requirements it imposed on November 14 for payment through international cards as almost all the participants from banks and other entities opposed the move, an official of BB told New Age. Sunday’s BB circular also asked the banks to strictly observe know-year-customer, anti-money laundering and anti-money laundering standards along with compliance with rules regarding duties or taxes applicable to such transactions. As per a BB report, a total of 5,42,627 transactions worth Tk 585 crore were executed by using internationally issued cards in April-June this year. At present, customers are using 1.72 crore cards including 12.03 lakh credit cards, 1.58 crore debit cards and 2.77 lakh prepaid cards.
Source – New Age.
