Dhaka: The interest or profit rate on the outstanding amount of credit card shall not exceed five percent of the highest interest rate offered in any credits of the respective Bank, said a Bangladesh Bank (BB) circular on Thursday. 

Interest or Profit shall be charged on the unpaid amount due for payment, the circular added. 

According to the circular, if a due date falls on a Friday, Saturday or any other public or bank holidays published by the government or BB at the beginning of each year, the card issuer shall allow the grace period (holiday) as required for payment to be made on the next working day. 

Telephone calls and visits for recovery of unpaid dues should be limited to a convenient time as or to be defined in the published policy of the card issuer and communicated to customers at the time of issuance of credit card. 

The enlisting of merchants shall be done after proper due diligence and evaluation. Card issuer or acquirer shall educate the merchants about the use of POS machine, genuineness and security features of credit card, signature verification and their rights and responsibilities under the agreement.

A PIN code or biometric safety measure shall be ensured at every point of sales outlets (POS) for card security. A PIN code for all domestic face to face POS transactions, 3D secure application for ecommerce transactions, SMS and Email alert for credit card transaction shall be ensured.

The circular also said that card issuers are allowed to issue foreign currency or dual currency supplementary credit cards.