Bangladesh Bank has asked Brac Bank to apprise the steps the commercial bank taken to prevent the fraudulence allegedly took place with bKash service.

A letter was served to the private bank on August 29, seeking information on the preventive measures against alleged cheating in its mobile money transfer service.

The measures would be intended to protect bKash agents and recharge vendors from frauds and to recover swindled money from bKash agent accounts by Thursday next.

Allegations of swindling were mentioned in the central bank’s letter including those of Farid Traders of Thataribazar, Dhaka and Rangamati Computer and Telecom Business Owners’ Welfare Association.

Bangladesh Bank asked for Brac Bank’s statement in respect of these allegations against bKash service.

According to one allegation, bKash agent Farid Traders had Tk293,000 in its account after transactions till 5:20pm on March 25. At 5:21pm, the agent saw the SIM became deactivated.

After contacting the respective mobile operator instantly, the agent came to know that the SIM registration was shown failed and the replacement SIM was drawn already. Farid immediately informed bKash about the matter and asked to block the account.

But bKash authorities failed to block the account immediately and Farid found all the money was vanished from the account in just five minutes.

Besides, Rangamati Computer and Telecom Business Owners’ Welfare Associationcame with allegation that money were being stolen from agent accounts by using secret code.

The Association sent a letter to Bangladesh Bank urging to save bKash agents from losing their business capital to the frauds. The letter signed by the Association’s president Abdur Rahim called for legal initiative in this regard.

The Association alleged bKash authorities just send alert massages and avoid responsibilities in the case money stealing by frauds from accounts. 

According to it, the agents do not gethelp in the case of cheating from the local distributors appointed by bKash, and even the frauds caught by agents get freed from police.

The letter said the agents now suspect bKash itself is involved with the fraudulent activities. 

Meanwhile, the central bank last week issued a notice tightening policy on mobile financial services after incidents of fraudulences occurred in mobile money transfer.

The notice cited some persons were making financial transactions and transferring funds without having any mobile account, which violates mobile financial services the guidelines on for banks.