Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN) -The central bank of Bangladesh signed a deal with Sweden-based CMA Small Systems AB on Thursday to introduce a Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) system by the end of September 2015.
“We’re going to improve the high-value time critical payments in the country introducing the RTGS system,” said Bangladesh Bank (BB) Governor Dr. Atiur Rahman.
He was addressing the signing ceremony as the chief guest at the central bank headquarters in Dhaka.
Introducing the RTGS system, the central bank boss said the system will accommodate local currency transactions, government security transactions and domestic foreign currency transactions.  
“The RTGS is not only a state-of-the-art payment system but also a tool for mitigating credit and systemic risks in the economy,” he said.
Subhankar Shaha, executive director of the BB and Alex Nazaroff, managing director of the CMA Small Systems AB signed the agreement on behalf of their respective organisations.
Dr. Rahman also said the central bank has been working relentlessly for the improvement of the payment systems of the country over the past few years.
“Introduction of Bangladesh Automated Clearing House (BACH) is a milestone achievement in this regard,” Dr Rahman said.
Earlier, BB has implemented the National Payment Switch (NPS) Bangladesh for streamlining country’s card-based payments.
Twenty nine commercial banks have already joined the NPS and 85 percent of ATMs are touching this NPS, the BB governor added.
 “We’re now working with the stakeholders using POS. We’ll also bring MFS (mobile financial services) providers into this National Payment Switch. We have now 20 million MFS accounts. Mobile Financial Services were introduced for accommodating the unbanked strata of the society,” he noted.
Among others, Deputy Governors of the BB Abul Quasem and Nazneen Sultana, also spoke on the occasion.
Asian Development Bank is providing the financial assistance for implementing the RTGS, the BB officials said.
The RTGS, which can be defined as the continuous (real-time) settlement of funds transfers individually on an order by order basis (without netting).
‘Real time’ means the processing of instructions at the time they are received rather than at some later time. ‘Gross Settlement’ means the settlement of funds transfer instructions occurs individually (on an instruction by instruction basis).
BBN/SSR/AD-20Nov14-12:55 pm (BST)