The central bank yesterday tightened rules for exchange houses abroad having 'drawing arrangements' with local banks to ensure the safety of remittances sent by non-resident Bangladeshis and avert any future remittance scam like the one committed by the UKbased FastSolution Company.

“This is to stop the repeat of scam over remittance as the one committed by Fast Solution," Bangladesh Bank (BB) Governor DrSalehuddin Ahmed told reporters.

The company was charged with a remittance fraudulence of equivalent Tk 161 crore that the nonresident Bangladeshis (NRBs) in the UK sent through it.

Some 38 local banks have 723 drawing arrangements with 258 money exchange houses abroad as of June 30 this year.

The central bank sent new guidelines to the commercial

banks yesterday, saying that the new! rules are to ensure close and effective monitoringof the drawing ana igements.

According to the guidelines, the loca banks will have to ensure that the breign exchange houses widr whit h they want to make drawing arra igements must obtain approvals >r licences from the central banl s or the authorities concerned of t lose countries to operate mon ey transferbusiness.

T le exchange houses will also have to get go-ahead from the appropriate authorities such as com nerce ministry, justice ministry, :hamber of commerce and induitry, registrar of companies and municipality.

T le money transferringcompanies ,vill have to have a name that wou d identify tile nature of their bust less. For instance, the names will jo along with such words as Monsy Transfer, Exchange and Rem ttance. They would not be able o use the names or part of the

names of local banks like Sonali, Janata, Agrani and Rupali.

Directors df the exchange houses should be the permanent residents of the countries concerned, according to the guidelines.

While considering drawing arrangements, the commercial banks will have to give priority to the exchange houses having three years of experience in money transfer business and sound financial condition.

The commercial banks will also apprise the central bank of any suspicious transactions with the remittance houses like excessive remittance sending against single name, remittance after corporate name, irregularities in quoting exchange rate and sending irregularcoverfunds.

The new guidelines also gave some instructions to the commercial banks as a means of avoiding risks associated with the remittance transactions.