Bangladesh Bank (BB) on Wednesday revoked the Prime Bank’s mobile banking permission on ground of gross irregularities by the bank in mobile banking operations.

Conveying the decision, the central bank on Wednesday sent a letter to the Prime Bank authorities, BB Executive Director Dasgupta Ashim Kumar told BSS.

He said BB took the decision after the Prime Bank failed to give satisfactory reply to the querries of the central bank regarding a major misconduct by the mobile banking partner of this private bank.

He said BB in the letter told the authorities of Prime Bank that the misconduct was a major violation of the mobile banking guideline, issued by the central bank in 2009.

On receiving complaints, a BB investigation found that SMG Infocom Limited, the operating partner of the Prime Bank for mobile banking intentionally shut its operation after receiving huge cash by appointing few hundred agents for doing mobile banking services of the Prime Bank.

The central bank also found that the Prime Bank signed agreement with another operational partner Unitrend Network for running its mobile banking service without taking any action against SMG Infocom for its fraudulent activities.

Currently, 20 banks are providing mobile banking services to hundreds of clients across the country, particularly to the people in rural area, where access to traditional banking services is limited.

The central bank issued a guideline for mobile banking in 2009 and subsequently allowed 28 banks to do mobile banking. Formal mobile banking, however, began in 2011 with Brac Bank being the leader with its brand bKash.

News:Daily Sun/7-Agc-2014