Ensure uninterrupted use of credit cards
The central bank yesterday instructed banks to ensure uninterrupted use of credit cards by their clients to make payments for digital advertisements, after some lenders barred such activities by misunderstanding a previous notice.
The confusions started on November 14 last year, when the Bangladesh Bank -- with the view to checking online casinos and gambling, illegal foreign exchange trading and purchase of financial instruments issued in foreign stock markets, cryptocurrency and lottery tickets -- made the submission of an online transaction authorisation form (OTAF) mandatory for every foreign payment.
It was a cumbersome process in every sense, which understandably elicited outrage from different quarters, prompting the central bank had to discard the OTAF process ten days later.
But some banks were still under confusion and went on denying payments for advertisement and digital marketing on social media platforms.
This compelled the central bank to issue a fresh notice yesterday.
“The latest central bank instruction is a clarification of the previous notice issued in November last year,” a BB official told The Daily Star.
The lenders will also have to ensure that the credit cardholders clear the taxes during the purchase of legitimate products and services, said the latest BB notice.
Clients will be barred from purchasing any illegal service and product through cards though.
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