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Penalise MLM companies for illegal banking

Suggests ex-BB governor Salehuddin

Staff Correspondent
The government should take the same action against multilevel marketing (MLM) companies as it did against Jubok (Jubo Karmasangsthan Society) in 2006 for illegal banking practices, said the immediate past Bangladesh Bank governoryesterday.
As per existing laws, an MLM company can not carry out banking practices as it is registered as a cooperative firm, said the former governor, Salehuddin Ahmed.
He was addressing the second day of a three-day “Bankers' Summit-2012’’ organised by Financial Excellence Ltd, a non-government organisation, at Brac-CDM in Savar.
"Some MLM companies in the country are carrying out illegal banking practices due to weaknesses in the regulatory system," he said.
Salehuddin's comments come in the backdrop of several recently published newspaper reports on Destiny Multipurpose Cooperative Society's alleged illegal banking activities. The society is a concern of the controversial MLM company Destiny2000.
“The government should take immediate steps to protect the interests of the depositors by pursuing legal action against them like I did against Jubok in my tenure,” said Salehuddin.
He said the government must be bold enough to seize the assets of the guilty MLM companies.
Salehuddin also stressed the need to formulate a separate law on MLM operations as existing laws are not adequate.
Mamun Rashid, a leading banker and economic analyst, said there is no law present in the country to oversee MLM activities.
Around 50 leading bankers and economists participated in the summit to sketch out their medium and long term strategic visions for the financial sector in Bangladesh.
Akbar Ali Khan, a former adviser to a caretaker government, presented a paper, "Banking reforms in Bangladesh: the critical issues".
In it, he suggested the government to provide tax incentives for banks which maintain a low interest rate spade (the difference between the interest banks pay on deposits and take against loans).
“Our interest rate spade is higher than that of most South Asian countries. In 2010, it was 5.9 percent while most of South Asia and South East Asia was maintaining a spade between 2 to 4 percent,” he said.
Speaking as the chief guest, BB Governor Atiur Rahman said the country's banking sector grew several-fold since 1971 in tandem with the economy's uninterrupted spell of steady and stable growth.
Credit and investment assets of scheduled banks amounted to a minuscule Tk 7.07 billion in December 1972 but stood at Tk4,625.85 billion in December 2011, he said.