EC to Enforce 'Match/No Match' NID Verification for Banks Amid Data Leak Concerns

The Election Commission (EC) of Bangladesh has decided to halt the practice of providing broad National Identity (NID) information to banks. Moving forward, the EC will only confirm whether a specific piece of information provided by an institution is a “match” or “no match,” rather than disclosing all associated data linked to a citizen’s NID number.

This decision was taken following evidence of NID data leaks from institutions that receive EC's identity verification services.

To discuss the implementation of this new data protection measure, the EC is scheduled to hold a meeting with the Association of Bankers, Bangladesh (ABB) on Thursday, June 26, at 3:30 PM in the conference room of the Election Commission headquarters. A total of 15 representatives from ABB are expected to attend, focusing on strengthening security protocols for NID verification in the banking sector.

A letter on this matter, signed by Md. Sarwar Hossain, Assistant Director (Data Accuracy) of the EC’s NID Wing, has already been sent to the ABB chairman. The letter states that the meeting will be chaired by the EC Secretary and will focus on the implementation of the “match/no match” verification system.

Meanwhile, Director General of the NID Wing, ASM Humayuni Kabir, told reporters on June 25 that approximately 190,000 NID correction applications remain pending at field-level offices across the country. He added that instructions have been issued to local officers to resolve these by the end of June.

Currently, the EC database contains records for about 121.8 million voters. Many of them have submitted correction requests for various inaccuracies in their NID records. The EC categorizes and processes these requests based on the complexity of each case.