CNI News

12 Sept 2022

As towns and villages outside Yangon are not connected to the national grid or lack regular supply of electricity, Wave Money agents there have difficulty installing CCTVs, Ko Aung Phyo Paing, a Wave Money agent in Nattalin in Bago Region told the CNI.

The Central Bank of Myanmar issued an instruction for Wave Money agents requiring them to install CCTV cameras or to secretly take the photographs of their customers in order to record them.

Therefore, Wave Money agents in off-grid areas are likely to be forced to shut down their businesses.

Ko Aung Phyo Paing told the CNI, “Our customers are not happy with the instructions to bring their national registration cards. It is also impossible to install CCTVs because ours is an off-grid area. As our town is a rural area, I know all my customers very well. If they have difficulty, I have to try to help them as much as possible. If they forget to bring their national registration cards, I help transfer their money by using my own national registration card number. However, I don’t offer such services to strangers.”

The instructions for Wave Money issued by the CBM. (GETTY IMAGES)

Some Wave Money agents in Yangon have already shut down their businesses, which serve customers who transfer or take out small amounts of money, because the instructions of the CBM and Wave Money put them in trouble.

A staff from Wave Money Call Center told the CNI, “We are using this system in accordance with instructions for mobile money services to record the data of customers. It is safer for agents. If customers are not happy with the new system at present, we are trying to help them to get used to the new system one day.”

Wave Money issued a statement on 8th September that it was upgrading its security systems for the safety of cash transfer and withdrawal services in accordance with instructions for mobile financial services.