Govt to draft law to incorporate digitalisation of banking

The government has moved to amend the 129-year old Bankers' Books Evidence Act to make it time-benefiting in keeping with the massive changes in the banking sector triggered by technological advancement.

The law was formulated in 1891. Since then, the banking sector has gone through transformational changes.

Particularly, digitalisation has brought in significant changes in banking activities and services. Computers have taken over handwritten ledgers, daily books, cash books and other documents, making an ICT-based banking system inevitable.

Banking transactions are being preserved electronically in devices instead of books.

The cabinet approved the draft of the Bankers' Books Evidence Act 2020 on Monday.

According to the proposed law, information about clients are considered as secret in most countries. But sometimes, these pieces of information are needed to be assessed, inspected and presented to courts.

These issues should be specified in the Bankers' Books Evidence Act in line with the changing times and after the formulation of the Right to Information Act in Bangladesh.

The act has taken into account the preservation of information by banks digitally. This means the digitally-recorded information would be considered as prima facie evidence.

The proposed law has identified areas about which information can be published. At the same time, it has provisions to provide necessary information legally. As a result, there will not be any complexity in exchanging banking information, according to the summary draft of the law. It identified crimes and spelt out punishment and trial systems. If found guilty of publishing information illegally, a person would face jail terms of at least three years or fined Tk 10 lakh, or both. This would help ensure the secrecy of information.

The laws have identified crimes as cognisable, non-bailable and compoundable.

Banks face difficulty to present certified copies of old documents at courts within three working days. The law has proposed to give seven working days to banks.