The ‘Payment and Settlement Systems Bill, 2022 was placed in Parliament on Monday with a provision for punishing top bank officials for committing bank fraud through digital cheques.

Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal placed the Bill before it was sent to the respective parliamentary standing committee. The committee was asked to submit its report within 30 days.

As per the bill, punishment could be a maximum five years of imprisonment or Tk 50 lakh fine, or both.

A provision has been included in the draft law to remove the owner, director, chief executive, manager, secretary or any other official of the company in the case of offences committed by the bank or the company.

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The proposed law has mentioned punishment for various crimes, but it is not applicable for mobile banking services.

There were regulations, but no precise law governing bank payments and settlements was there. Now it’s going digital. These were not there in the regulations. That’s why the whole system has been brought under the proposed law separately.

In the bill, there are 47 sections, including provisions for electronic money transfers, but cryptocurrency, or virtual currency has not been included in it.

Cryptocurrency is not approved as a medium of exchange by the central bank.

The law has particular sections that outline offences. Section 4/5 defines how transactions will be conducted, how payments will be made, how they’ll be managed and how services will be offered.

The draft also includes rules regarding board management, the minimum investment needed to be a member of the board, ownership and management, management of inspections, and rules of service.

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Provisions include the transfer of funds through electronic means and the issuing of digital funds by the central bank.”

Section 37 of the draft law outlines the punishment for those who commit offences.

Section 39 specifies that Bangladesh Bank can remove the owner, director, chief executive, manager, secretary or any other official of a company because of any offences they commit or are involved in.