Bangladesh Bank is set to introduce stricter security measures for transferring money from bank cards to mobile financial services (MFS) accounts, commonly known as “add money”, amid concerns over rising cyber fraud.
Under the new rules, customers will only be able to add money from a bank card to an MFS account if both the card and the MFS account are registered under the same name.
The central bank decided to impose the restriction after a major fraud incident involving a foreign bank operating in Bangladesh, where fraudsters allegedly transferred funds from customers’ cards to MFS wallets through unauthorised transactions.
The Payment Systems Department (PSD) of Bangladesh Bank is expected to issue a circular on the matter soon, according to officials familiar with the matter.
According to the planned rules, effective from 1 August 2026, banks and MFS providers must ensure that the MFS account receiving funds is registered in the name of the cardholder.
As an interim arrangement until August, customers will still be able to add money from one person’s card to another person’s MFS account. However, in such cases, a token transaction of up to Tk500 must first be completed during the card-linking process. Regular transactions will only be allowed 24 hours after the successful completion of the token transaction and linking process.
Bangladesh Bank has also instructed MFS providers to classify card-to-MFS add money transactions as “fund transfers” instead of “merchant payments”.
In addition, the beneficiary wallet number must be visible to the card-issuing bank during the transaction process. Banks and MFS providers failing to ensure this facility by 31 July 2026 will not be allowed to offer add money services through those cards from 1 August onward.
Sector insiders and central bank sources said a cybercrime group recently siphoned off nearly Tk27 lakh by bypassing one-time password (OTP) protections on credit and debit cards issued by Standard Chartered Bangladesh and transferring funds to mobile wallets such as bKash and Nagad.
An investigation by The Business Standard found that the fraudsters used SIM cards and MFS accounts registered under other people’s names to move the stolen funds.
Following the incident, Standard Chartered Bangladesh suspended the add money feature from its cards to MFS platforms.
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