Nagad barred from bank transfers

Bangladesh Bank has instructed banks to bar fund transfers by Nagad while keeping the mobile financial services available to customers.

Bangladesh Bank Governor Ahsan H Mansur disclosed this information in a press conference after a high-level government meeting at Foreign Service Academy in Dhaka yesterday.

Replying to a question about Nagad, he said the bar on fund transfers by Nagad through banks was placed for the safekeeping of customers' money.

"Our administrative team is unable to function for a court order," he said, referring to a May 7 High Court stay on the activities of a central bank-appointed administrator at Nagad following a petition by one of its former directors.

In the absence of the administrator, Motasem Billah, former Nagad director Md Shafayet Alam assumed the role of CEO, although he is facing fraudulence charges in a case filed by Bangladesh Bank.

"We have appealed, and we hope to receive justice. In the meantime, Nagad could take various actions — destroy documents or erase evidence," the Bangladesh Bank governor said.

"We believe that the original management and board members of Nagad were involved in what we refer to as various types of malicious economic activities—in other words, corruption—through which they embezzled money," he said.

"We know that they created around Tk 650 crore worth of e-money, for which there was no actual monetary backing," he added.