BB to Probe Evaly Financial Transactions, E-commerce Activities

Bangladesh Bank will investigate the financial transactions and other e-commerce practices of the Evaly e-commerce platform.

Head of the Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU) Abu Hena Razee Hasan informed reporters about the move by BB. He said Evaly's bank accounts and its top managers had been suspended after reading media stories on the "illegal activities" of the e-commerce company, reports UNB.

The BFIU, an arm of the Bangladesh Bank, directed all commercial banks and financial institutions through a common letter on August 27 to freeze all bank accounts operated by top executives of Evaly.

A copy of the letter from BFIU, signed by UNB Deputy Director Fuara Khatun, reveals that it instructed all banks and financial institutions to freeze the accounts of Evaly 's Chairman Shamima Nasrin and Managing Director (MD) Md Rasel.

The letter mentioned both numbers – old NID and smart NID cards – and said the directives have been issued to suspend all transactions to and from the bank accounts of Evaly chairman and MD for the next 30 days under the Money Laundering Prevention Act 2019.

The banks and financial institutions have also been directed to send relevant documents of their opening of bank accounts like account opening form, KYC (know your customer), updated transactions statement, deposits and withdrawal receipts over Tk 50 lakhs, pay order, bank cheques, the information about the payee and depositors, their NIDs with images within five working days from date of the letter’s issuance.

Allegations galore against Evaly

Media reports have indicated that Evaly's e-commerce company has operated a business giving its consumers rare cash returns of up to 100 percent or 150 percent on the product's advance payment.

E-commerce industry analysts claim that no firm will offer 100% or more cash back on the purchasing of a drug. It was reported that when a consumer spent money to purchase a drug, Evaly needed a lot of time to produce the product.

The Directorate of National Consumer Rights Protection, a department under the Ministry of Commerce, has received major complaints from customers alleging "cheating" by Evaly.

This caused the Ministry of Commerce to set up a high-level committee to probe the accusations raised against the company.

Bangladesh Bank officials said that one of the big charges against Evaly is pressuring its customers to deposit their money in the company's e-wallet, which was totally illegal. In financial words, the e-wallet is classified as PSP and PSO.

On 5 March, the central bank in a circular instructed all scheduled banks not to offer any banking services or transaction facilities to unlicensed payment service providers (PSPs) and payment network operators (PSOs).

The central bank has noticed that many companies, in particular e-commerce firms, have been operating illegally as PSPs and PSOs without obtaining the requisite license from Bangladesh Bank.

The circular said that customers’ confidence in legal PSPs and PSOs would be hurt if any of the illegal entities closed down operations or cheated customers.

BB asked all scheduled banks not to offer custodian accounts, trust-cum-settlement accounts or any other accounts or transaction facilities and banking services to companies operating mobile or e-wallets as payment network operators or to any other payment service provider without obtaining a license from the central bank.

Banks were even asked not to offer payment gateways or market aggregation services to illegal PSPs and PSOs.

Bangladesh Bank officials also stated that Evaly has breached a rule of the Central Bank that will be prosecuted by an e-commerce firm.