Mobile money accounts will be verified

The government has now turned its attention to verifying the details on mobile financial service accounts after the completion of mobile SIM re-registration on May 31.

The development comes on the heels of recent arrests in Chittagong in connection with mobile money theft.

“The move will help reduce mobile financial service-related crimes,” said Tarana Halim, state minister for telecom, after a meeting with law enforcement agencies and mobile operators, who made the recommendation.

The telecom division will write to Bangladesh Bank next week asking it to issue a directive for commercial banks to update their MFS customers' details in line with the re-registration of mobile numbers.  The information that the MFS operators have about their subscribers may no longer be valid as the accounts were opened before the biometric re-registration of SIMs.

Mobile phone operators have re-registered 11.60 crore SIMs.

“Mobile financial service is a huge sector and it will only flourish going forward. So it would be better if we bring all customer data up to speed and bring regulation to the sector.”

“We have authenticated all the information of the mobile operators, so the MFS operators can cross-check their customers' data,” Tarana said.

As of April, there are 3.56 crore MFS accounts in the country and 5.78 lakh active agents, according to BB.

On an average, more than Tk 600 crore is transacted through MFS accounts a day, according to the monthly report of the central bank.

The government also plans to empower the police and Rapid Action Battalion to run raids against pre-activated SIMs and SIMs that have not been re-registered properly or have not been blocked yet.

The operators will face a fine of $50 or Tk 4,000 for every pre-activated and unregistered SIM, Tarana said.

“I will also write to the home minister to inform him about our decision to run the raids,” she added.

In the meeting, officials of Gulshan police station said they have received only one complaint of technology-based extortion in the seven days to June 7, down from 20 complaints a week previously.

Officials of Bangladesh Tele-communication Regulatory Commission said illegal international call termination has also declined after the completion of the SIM re-registration process, which will boost the government's revenue from the sector.