Bangladesh Bank (BB) has issued guideline for wire transfer or electronic money transfer in line with its continuous effort to check money laundering and encourage fund transfer through official channels.

The guideline, issued last week, stipulated that any transaction of money using swift, mobile phone, credit and debit cards and other electronic media would be considered as wire transfer.

Under the guideline, all banks and other money transferring organisations and agencies should keep detail and meaningful information about the person or organisation transferring at least US$1000 to any other country electronically.

For electronic transfer of Taka 25,000 domestically, the banks and other organisations should keep detail and accurate information about the transferee, and for the amount below Taka 25,000, the meaningful information about the beneficiaries should be kept with the banks.

The organisations, those are offering mobile banking, should use the KYC (know your client) format to keep information about the transferee.

The credit and debit cards issuers will also keep similar information about their clients excepting the payment for buying goods and services.

The guideline is not mandatory for transferring money by government, semi- government and autonomous organisations, the BB said.

News: The Daily Sun/Bangladesh/19th-Dec-12