Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN) – The central bank of Bangladesh on Thursday opened national payment switch aiming at facilitating faster economic growth through expansion of business activities across the country.
“We’ve shifted to new paradigm of the payment system with three commercial banks,” Bangladesh Bank (BB) Governor Atiur Rahman said while speaking at the inaugural ceremony of the National Payment Switch Bangladesh (NPSB) in the capital Dhaka.
Three banks are Southeast Bank Limited, Pubali Bank Limited and Dutch Bangla Bank Limited.
The central bank chief also said other banks will join the NPSB shortly.
“We expect that the new payment system will help give a new momentum in the economy through expansion of business activities,” the governor said, adding that the new payment system will be cost effective and transparent.
Under the payment system, clients will be able to withdraw cash, inquire about their account balance and get mini statements from the ATM booths initially.
Fifteen commercial banks and two third-party processors have already been selected on the basis of their necessary upgradation and customisation of existing switching solution to join the NPSB.
After implementation of the NPSB, use of cash will be reduced significantly and the new payment system will also contain circulation of fake bank notes in the economy, the governor said, adding that it will help to be more prudent in supervision and policy formulation.
The main objective of NPSB is to create a common platform for payments originating from different delivery channels and existing shared switches in order to facilitate inter-bank electronic transactions.
The NPSB will facilitate expansion of the card-based payment networks substantially and promote e-commerce, m-commerce and paperless transaction throughout the country, the officials said.
BB Deputy Governor Nazneen Sultana said the country has entered a new era through introduction of the new payment system. “We hope that the new system will help change the country’s image.”
“It will act as an electronic clearing house and ensure real time transactions. Settlement of funds will be executed at the day end which may add further to real time gross settlement system (RTGS) in future,” BB executive director Ashan Ullah said.
Chairman of the Association of Bankers’ Bangladesh (ABB) Nurul Amin said transparency of the transactions in inter-bank will increase under the new payment system.
“Providing services and reporting system will be easier under the new payment system,” managing director of the Pubali Bank Limited Helal Ahmed Chowdhury said, adding that a lot of changes took place in the banking system in the last couple of years.
Deputy managing director of the Dutch-Bangla Bank Limited Abul Kashem Md. Shirin said customers will be able to use their cards to transact at any ATM and POS terminals under the payment system.
“This will reduce the cost of transaction as banks will not require paying network fee to the Visa or Master Card. Ultimately banks can reduce fees to be paid by the customers to the banks,” he noted.
BBN/SSR/AD-27Dec12-9:37 pm (BST)
