BB asks Prime Bank to take action against service charge deduction

Bangladesh Bank asked Prime Bank Ltd to take legal action against its officials involved in deducting money from clients’ accounts as charges of different services including SMS, which goes against law.    In a letter on July 18, the central bank directed the private commercial bank to initiate action by August 5.   Meanwhile, the Prime Bank told Bangladesh Bank that it had already returned Tk260m to its nearly 800,000 clients’ accounts.    Of the amount, Tk170m was sent to 300,000 accounts as return of SMS charge while Tk90m was deposited to 400,000 accounts as Statement Generation Fee deducted earlier.      A high official of Prime Bank told the Dhaka Tribune that the bank’s managing director Ehsan Khasru, after discussion with officials, had directed to deduct those service charges from the accounts of the clients.  But when contacted to seek his comments over phone, Ehsan Khasru didn’t reply to calls.    Bangladesh Bank said Prime Bank realised Tk250m “illegally” from its account holders in the name of service charges. The bank has deducted Tk230 per account– out of which Tk200 was deducted as account statement generation fee and Tk30 as VAT – from all types of account – savings, current and special notice deposit (SND).   Prime Bank has around 1.2m accounts in its 117 branches and 15 SME branches. Even after having realised the charges, it was not included in the “schedule of charges” published on its website.   Prime Bank’s Agrabad branch of Chittagong client Kamal Hossain and the capital’s Motijheel branch customer Imam Hossain lodged a complaint with the central bank for deduction of the charges from their accounts.   After having received such complaints from many clients of the bank, the central bank conducted investigations into the branches in Dhaka and found the allegations true. Then, Bangladesh Bank went into looking at other branches outside Dhaka and discovered the incidents of deduction of charges.   The central bank warned the Prime Bank against this rip-off in future and directed to arrange payback along with punitive measures against the officials involved.