No advance payments in e-commerce: BB

Bangladesh Bank yesterday said e-commerce platforms would not be able to receive payments in advance for any products or services rendered.

Some e-shops instruct shoppers to deposit money directly into their respective bank accounts before delivering a product or service, breaching Bangladesh Bank regulations.

As per the digital commerce guidelines 2021, there is no scope to make these types of advance payments, according to a central bank notice.

Bangladesh Bank has asked lenders to monitor the accounts of e-commerce companies by way of verifying the transaction profiles.

On top of that, banks have to analyse the characteristics and risks of the accounts as a whole, it said. The central bank move comes in tune with requests made by the commerce ministry in a letter sent to its governor, Fazle Kabir, on August 26.

The ministry said the e-commerce companies had followed the method to bypass digital commerce guidelines.

In July, the commerce ministry decided to hold payments from being made by customers to local e-commerce platforms until consumers received the purchased items.

The development followed rising allegations against a number of digital commerce platforms that they were not delivering goods and products in a timely manner or delaying too much against advance payments made by consumers for the products.