An automated bank account verification system will come into effect on 15 September to ensure profit and principal payments for national savings schemes reach the correct bank accounts without delay.
The Account Verification System (AVS), integrated into the National Savings Scheme Online Management System, enables instant verification of customer account details when purchasing savings certificates or bonds.
Coordinated between Bangladesh Bank and scheduled banks, the initiative has been launched under the Finance Division’s “Strengthening Public Financial Management Program to Enable Service Delivery” programme.
Currently, nine out of the government’s 11 National Savings Schemes are managed automatically through the online platform.
The system serves 3,946,224 registered individual customers, processing an average of 175,000 Electronic Fund Transfers (EFT) daily for profit and principal disbursements, alongside issuing nearly 8,000 new savings certificates each day.
Although National ID (NID) and mobile number verification were already operational, the lack of automated bank account verification meant incorrect account numbers were previously entered directly into the system.
Any digit error caused EFT disbursements to bounce back, requiring manual corrections before re-transmission.
This delayed payouts to investors, increased the workload for issuing offices, the Department of National Savings, and related departments, and created a risk of funds being transferred to the wrong person’s account.
Under the new setup, entering an account number triggers real-time verification through Bangladesh Bank’s IT infrastructure and the respective scheduled bank.
The system checks whether the account is valid and active, and matches the holder’s details against their NID or passport number to catch errors prior to transactions. Account verification will apply during initial purchases as well as any subsequent account modifications.
According to the Department of National Savings, AVS will reduce incorrect account entries to near zero and minimise returned funds, eliminating investor hassle and administrative overheads.
The Finance Division highlighted the system as a crucial step in modernising digital public services, ensuring customer funds reach the correct bank accounts quickly and securely across high daily transaction volumes.
