Bangladesh Bank has sent a letter to three banks instructing them to release Tk56.85 crore for the customers, which was stranded in accounts in the name of Foster Corporation, the payment gateway company of Qcoom.

These three banks are Bank Asia, Islami Bank Bangladesh Limited and First Security Islami Bank.

Asked about this, an official of Bangladesh Bank, requesting anonymity, told Dhaka Tribune that the Commerce Ministry decided to refund Qcoom customers, whose money were stuck in digital payment gateways despite paying in advance.

“Some of it was already released, but we received information that the banks were delaying in disbursing. That is why the order was issued,” the central bank official also said.

Even refunds via mobile financial services were posing a problem. But that has also been solved, he added.

According to Bangladesh Bank sources, 175 Qcoom customers have received around Tk3 crore in the previous three working days.

But last Thursday, another Tk5 crore was supposed to be released, but was not disbursed, allegedly due to banks’ non-cooperation.

The letter sent to the managing directors (MDs) of the three banks on Sunday instructed them to take necessary steps to release the money.

In the letter, the central bank stated that around Tk29.49 crore was stuck in Bank Asia’s Gulshan branch, Tk15 crore in Islami Bank’s Badda branch, and over Tk12.36 crore in FSIBL’s Gulshan branch.

The letter further said that the directive was issued in view of the decision taken by the Ministry of Commerce to refund the money to the customers of QCoom deposited in Foster’s bank account.

According to Bangladesh Bank, Tk214 crore was stuck in payment gateways till 14 October last year since the launch of escrow on 30 June that year. Of the amount, Tk166 crore was deposited by Qcoom customers.

Qcoom has another Tk231 crore stuck in Foster’s accounts.

The commerce ministry had instructed Qcoom and Foster to prepare the list of customers and the two companies initially made a list of 6,721 customers and sought more time for enlisting the remaining such customers.