Mercantile Bank Limited

Generat Banking Division

Head Offlce, Dhaka

Instruction Circular No. L$79|ZOB February 18, 2018

All Head of Branches

All Divisional/Departmental Head, Head Office
Zonal Heads of Chittagong, Comilla-Noakhali, North Bengal
The Principal, MBL Training Institute
CEO, Mercantile Bank Securities Limited
Mercantile Bank Limited
Bangladesh.

Subject: Application of due diligence and compliance regarding operataonal function,

Dear Sir (s),

Please refer to the above subject.

We would like to inform that, as per direction of the Audit Committee of the Board of Directors of the
Bank, a Circular no.l774 dated: 19/06/2017 has been issued mentioning precautionary measures for
avoiding fraud, forgeries and financial loss before making payment/fund transfer against cheques and
other instruments.

But recently in some branches, fraud and forgeries have been committed due to lack of due diligence and
non-compliance of the above Circular. Consequently/ the Senior Management of the Bank is deeply
concerned about the issues and they advised to prevent fraud forgeries/financial crime/reputational loss
by taking necessary precautionary measures.

In this connection, the appended below procedure must be followed before making any payment/fund
transfer against cheques, Payment Order, RTGS, EFTN, other instrument/vouchers:

1. Security measure of the cheque must be verified;

i. Cheque Leaves has been printed on CBS-1 (Clearing Bank Specification-l) standard and 95 gsm;
ii. Water marked security (Double tone) (hold to the light to verify);
iii. Erasable ink on the surface of the Cheque Leaves;
iv. Erasable Invisible Fluorescent UV (Ultra Violet) Ink in full areas;
v. Micro print Security Text and Security Printing Design;
vi. Chemicallysensitized;
vii. Size of the Cheque Books (SB & CD) : 7.5"(L) X 3.5,(W) with MICR area .625 inch (1.59cm);
viii. Unlawful alteration of Information of Cheque Leaves as under:
Amount Payee Siqnature Date Cheque Serial No. Branch Name
Routinq Number Customer Name A/C Number Chq. Serial Prefjx MICR Information
2. Information of the cheque i.e. date of issue, amount of cheque figures & in words must be similar,
Bearer/Crossed Cheque, signature of the account holder exist or not etc. must be as per rule;

3. Signature of the account holder must be verified by authorized official putting his/her authorized
signature with PA number;

4. signature verified seal with pA number must be given on the front of cheque leaves;
5. Positive Pay Instructions (where applicable) must be obtained. For effectiveness of the .positive pay
Instruction', contact number of the customer must be recorded and or updated in the system;

6' other than positive payment instruction, branch must ensure over phone regarding issuance
of
cheque by the owner/account holder and confirmed about payment instruction. Urban and rural
branch are advised to take confirmation over Tk.1.00 (one) lac & above and rk.50,000
(fifty
thousand) respectively.
Cont'd.....P/2
(
 -2-

7. Fund transfer must be executed against cheque, RTGS Form and authorized officer must be checked
with physical instrument/voucher before authorization.

B. After observing the due formalities, maker of the cheque will post the same in Temenos T24 & will
give authorized signature on the front of the cheque leaves;

9. At the time of authorization of the cheque by authorized ofFicial, he/she will confirm all the formalities
is in order. He will authorize after having the cheque leaves physically & will sign on the front of
cheque leaves.

10. In case of any doubt at any point regarding the cheque (i.e. cheque return due to any mismatch) by
the Cash Officer, that should be immediately informed to the customer over phone and the same
issue must be informed to the branch management/Head Office (if required) before returning the
cheque;

11. After authorization of the cheque, the same will be sent to the Cash section for making payment.

12. Cash payment officer will make the payment of the cheque after confirmation that all the formalities
has meanwhile observed.

13. At the end of the day's transaction, user-wise transaction summary must be printed out
for cross checking by the other higher official with physical instruments / vouchers.
14. In case of Clearing cheque, all the security features of the cheque (as mentioned under sl. no.1)
must be checked before scanning and sending image of the Cheque.

15. in case of depositing mutilated and soil notes in Bangladesh Bank Guarantee vault for destroying,
branch must be ensured and followed Bangladesh Bank guideline as well as Instruction Circular
1860/2018 dated lanuary 22,2018 for avoiding Bank's reputation & penal charges.

In addition to the said precautions, the following attitude/commitment has also been seriously
emphasized on and expected from all officials of the Bank:

"The employees should hold high moral/ethical vatue, maintain highest tevet of antegraty
and financial discipline and should not share their password to others. Any unauthorized
access to customer information and share wath others will tantamount to severe
disciplinary action.

The Head of Branch, Manager Operation/GB In-Charge and concerned officials will be held
responsible for negligence of duties and non-compliance of the above instructions while
making any payment/fund transfer against cheques, payment order, RTGS, EFTN other
instrument/vouchers etc,"

Therefore, in spite of the repeated warnings, further fraud/forgeries/any other occurrence held due to
lack of compliance at any level shall be treated seriously. The ibove mentioned points will be checked
by Audit Unit during the audit.

In this regard, all the Cluster Heads & Head of branches are advised to bring the contents of this
circular to the notice of all concerned for meticulous compliance.

Thanking you,

N/
Dr. Md. Nurul Islam Md, Quam owdhury
Senior Executive Vice president & CFO Ad anaging Director & CBO
_..F4-

Copy for kind information to:

lJ f! to the Managing Director and cEo, Mercantire Bank Limited, Head

office, Dhaka.
2) PS to the Additionar Managing Directors, Mercantire Bank Limited, r-reaa omL, orrara.
3) PS to the Deputy Managing Drectors, Mercantile Bank Limited, r-rLaa omie, nhata.
4) The Senior Vice President & Head of Audit Unit, Mercantile
Bank Limited, Head office, Dhaka for
necessary action.