Nat'l ID card allowed for BO account maintenance

From now on national identity (ID) card can be used as an alternative to the mandatory bank certificate for maintaining beneficiary owner's (BO) accounts.
The decision was taken at a meeting of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in Dhaka yesterday following allegation that the banks impose extra charge on the account holders for the certificate.
The stock market regulator also extended the deadline for submitting bank certificates or national ID card to the depository participants for existing BO accounts until September 30 of this year.
After the meeting, SEC Executive Director Farhad Ahmed said instead of a bank certificate a BO account holder could submit attested photocopies of both sides of his/her national ID card.
The commission in October of last year made submission of a bank certificate for opening a BO account mandatory, while asking the existing BO account holders to submit the bank certificate, which verifies personal information, within June 30 of this year.
Banks charge extra fees for providing the account holders with the certificate, which would enable them to continue with their BO accounts. It was found that different banks charge different fees for providing the certificate, ranging from Tk 100 to Tk 500.
Shafiqul Islam, an account holder at the Motijheel branch of Sonali Bank, said the branch management charged him Tk 500 for a statement and a certificate that he needed to keep his BO account.
Shafiqul is not the only one facing this problem of extra charge; there are hundreds of others who would have to pay the extra money as more and more people are inclined to invest in the stock market.
“Banks are exploiting the situation,” another account holder at the AB Bank's Motijheel branch said. AB Bank has taken Tk 230 from him for the certificate, he said.
Bangladesh Bank said they have nothing to do with this, as they don't control the banks' charges and fees.
“We have received complaints from our colleagues, friends and relatives regarding imposition of extra charges by the banks on certificates for BO accounts,” a senior official of BB's Banking Regulations and Provision Department, said.
Meanwhile, the SEC has extended the deadline for submitting bank certificate for the existing BO account to September 30 from June 30 of this year.
SEC Executive Director Farhad Ahmed said as the deadline expires BO accounts that do not accompany bank certificate or photocopies of national ID card of the account holders will be closed down.
Presently, there are around 15 lakh BO account holders in the country.