Eastern Bank pays back ATM fraud victims

Nazneen Sultana, deputy governor of Bangladesh Bank, and Subhankar Saha, executive director, and Hassan O Rashid, additional managing director of Eastern Bank, pose at a ceremony to reimburse EBL's clients who fell victim to the recent ATM fraud. Photo: EBL

Star Business Report

Eastern Bank yesterday reimbursed the victims of the recent ATM card fraud.
A total of Tk 17.53 lakh was given to 24 clients, the bank said in a statement.
Nazneen Sultana, deputy governor of Bangladesh Bank, handed over a reimbursement cheque to Mahbuba Akhter, one of the affected EBL card users, on behalf of the private bank at the central bank headquarters in Dhaka.
The move comes a week after EBL said about two dozens of its card-users fell prey to fraudsters who used duplicate cards to steal money from ATMs. 
This had prompted the bank to shut down all its 200 ATM booths for six hours. The central bank then asked EBL to compensate its clients.
The BB also directed all banks to install anti-skimming devices, conduct regular monitoring of video footage, and not to allow any unauthorised people to install or repair any device in the ATM booths.
Foreigners are believed to be involved in the skimming racket that stole money from the ATMs.
The central bank, EBL, United Commercial Bank, City Bank and police analysed the video footage of four ATM booths that were taken for at least Tk 25 lakh.
Fraudsters installed skimming devices at four ATMs -- two of EBL and one each of UCB and City Bank -- to steal data from debit cards used in the booths.
City Bank has so far received claims from clients for Tk 1.4 lakh.
The BB has found that more than 200 cardholders have lost data.
BB Executive Director Subhankar Saha, EBL Additional Managing Director Hassan O Rashid and Head of Consumer Banking Nazeem A Choudhury were also present.

Govt gets Tk 209cr in new mobile tax in six months

Rejaul Karim Byron

The tax on mobile talk time introduced in the current year's budget raked in revenues of Tk 209 crore in the first six months.
In the budget for fiscal 2015-16, a 3 percent supplementary duty was imposed on mobile talk time on top of the existing 15 percent value-added tax at the subscriber level.
Finance Minister AMA Muhith told parliament recently that the mobile operators realised Tk 1,253.14 crore in VAT and supplementary duty on call charges between July and December last year.
On sales of SIM cards, Tk 291.59 crore was collected during the period.
Most of the 3 percent supplementary duty is being realised from low-income users.
Of the total revenue of Tk 1,544.73 crore, Grameenphone paid Tk 981.91 crore, which is the highest, and Citycell Tk 0.01 crore, the lowest. At present, there are 13.50 crore active mobile connections.
Each user spends Tk 150 on an average every month, according to the officials of mobile companies. If anybody uses above Tk 1,000 per month, he/she is considered a “rich user”.
The officials said about 10 percent of the subscribers spend more than Tk 1,000 each month, and the rest between Tk 200 and Tk 500.

Alibaba eyes Bangladesh

Star Business Report

Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba is planning to enter Bangladesh, an official said yesterday.
“We are collecting information about the Bangladeshi market and will help our group to make a decision,” said Siyuan Pi, managing director of business development for emerging markets at UCWeb, a unit of Alibaba Group.
Pi's comment came at the launch of UCWeb's Bangla version browser, ahead of International Mother Language Day on Sunday.
UC browser is the world's second largest mobile browser, with 19.97 percent share of the market. The browser is available in 11 languages, including English, Russian, Indonesian and Vietnamese.
“We are also offering online commerce for Bangladeshi people through the aliexpress.com site,” he said, adding that people can buy products through this site from China as well as other countries.
Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba Group Holding transacted $390 billion in last year, and is planning to achieve $1 trillion in "sales" in the next five years.
A UCWeb survey found 37 percent of users from Bangladesh prefer Bangla as their interface language, said Catherine Huang, marketing director of emerging markets at UCWeb.
It is currently the leading mobile browser in four emerging markets: China, India, Indonesia and Pakistan.
In Bangladesh, UCWeb's popularity has been increasing rapidly and its daily active users grew 109.2 percent in 2015, according to Huang. Its current share in the Bangladesh market is about 30.34 percent, Huang said.