Law enforcers, Bangladesh Bank and district administrations have taken steps to keep the mobile banking services under close watch to identify financers of violence that has been ongoing in the country since January 5.

Bangladesh Bank and law enforcers, however, regularly monitor local and foreign bank transactions to curb terror financing.

Banks, mobile phone operators, financial institutions and law enforcers have recently been asked to keep suspected money transections under strict surveillance to identify the people or organisations behind the countrywide anti-government movement and deadly violence.

The move came into action soon after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on February 5 asked all the commercial banks and financial institutions to identify the financer of arson activities through monitoring banking transactions.

At least 59 people were killed while many more are suffering from injuries in nationwide arson attacks since the BNP led alliance called nonstop blockade that began on January 6.

Intelligence agencies have found that a huge amount of money is being spent to plan and execute the arson attacks, which are being generated both from home and abroad through different banking channels, hundi and courier services, sources said.

According to intelligence sources, around one lakh mobile banking accounts were used for financing suspected terror activities. Most of the accounts were created using the fake information, the sources added.  

Upon allegation, the central bank has identified 98,283 suspected accounts and issued letters to the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission, mobile operators and commercial banks to suspend their activities, they said.

Bangladesh Bank deputy governor Abu Hena Mohd Razee Hassan said on Sunday that they had already put alerts to all the banks so that they can avoid being used for financing terrorism through keeping close monitoring.

‘On February 10, we had a meeting with the chief executive officers and head of money laundering prevention departments of all the banks where the Bangladesh Bank asked banks to keep records on the details of suspected sender and receiver and file regular reports to us. The banks in risk prone areas will analyse financial records of the clients of last six months and will report to us about suspected activities,’ said Hassan, also the head of Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU) of the central bank.

Meanwhile, a number of district administration officials held meetings with the regional bankers, law enforcers and mobile operators to combat terror financing.

The NTV Online has obtained a copy of a meeting minutes held in Rajshahi District Administration office earlier this month. The meeting was chaired by the district deputy commissioner Mohammad Mezbah Uddin Chowdhury.

The meeting discussed that it is possible to identify the suspected banking transactions easily, but is almost impossible to find out the suspicious transactions made through courier services, mobicash, Ucash and Bkash.

So, the meeting has decided to request all courier services and mobile company area managers to keep records of senders and receivers who transfer Tk 20,000 or more at a time.

Bangladesh Bank executive director Mahfuzur Rahman admitted the decision and said they had already received a letter from Chapainawabganj DC office seeking information on daily money transactions.

‘The existing laws do not allow commercial banks to provide client’s personal information to anyone without court order or central bank’s instruction. We do not know why they are seeking personal information. We have already written letters to the public administration ministry and home ministry expressing our limitations,’ he said.

The BB spokesperson however said that the DC offices can seek assistance from the Bangladesh Bank if they need any information.

‘If they call for help, they will have to beg information or report to us so that we can take necessary initiatives,’ Rahman added.

Bangladesh Bank in 2010 initiated mobile financial services and approved 28 banks for operation. Among them, 19 have started providing the service.

There are about 5.41lakh mobile banking agents across the country who serves 252.56 lakh registered clients. Among them, number of active accounts stands at 121.54lakhs, according to Bangladesh Bank data released on early January.