Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN)- Eastern Bank Ltd. (EBL) introduced an instant account opening solution –EBL INSTA Account—for the first time in Bangladesh under e-KYC guideline on Sunday.

The leading private commercial bank (PCB) launched the solution to help customers and employees maintain maximum possible social distancing during COVID-19 pandemic.

Interested person can opened such account within a minute, according to the EBL.

“This account will be opened with the NID of the customer, and will offer debit card as well as free cheque book facilities,” an EBL senior official said.

He also said EBL Insta Account comes in both Current and Savings variant, and is available in all EBL Branches.

“This initiative will minimize the total time spent by customers in the bank, while ensuring them top quality digital banking solutions,” the private banker explained.

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Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN)

“It has been decided to enhance the limit to $40,000 in a calendar year from $30,000. Within the limit of $40,000, international cards may be issuable for $8,000 instead of $ 6,000 which may be refilled subject to availability of the limit and observance of specified formalities,” the Bangladesh Bank (BB), the country’s central bank in a notification on Monday.

Currently, authorized dealer (AD) banks are allowed to remit up to $30,000, with international card facility within the limit, on behalf of IT or Software firms, who are members of BASIS, for payments abroad to meet their bonafide business expenses in a calendar year.

This is to clarify that the yearly entitlement will be usable by IT/Software firms for meeting bonafide current needs including but without limiting to digital marketing expenses, it added.

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Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN)

"….it has been decided to waive online transaction authorisation form (OTAF) for payments abroad through international cards," the Bangladesh Bank (BB), the country’s central bank, said in a notice on Sunday.

The BB relaxed the requirement against the backdrop of criticism raised by different quarters, including the Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services (BASIS).

On November 14, the central bank issued a notification with imposing restriction on overseas online payments through international cards.

Under the BB's previous notification, international credit cardholders were required to submit such forms to banks concerned, mentioning their name, card number, beneficiary name, amount of foreign currency and details of products and services to be purchased.

Talking to the BBN, a BB senior official said the central bank has waived the formalities for online payments abroad in consultation with stakeholders.

A review meeting with the stakeholders, including the representatives of the BASIS, held at the central bank headquarters in Dhaka on Sunday, which was supposed to be held today (Monday).

BB executive director Mohd Humayun Kabir presided over the meeting.

The central bank also asked the authorised dealer (AD) banks for taking necessary arrangements to restrict illegal online payments abroad through Bangladeshi cards.

Such payments include participating in online casino or gambling, trading in foreign exchange or stocks, purchase of crypto currencies/lottery ticket, buying of goods/services originated in Bangladesh, etc.

The ADs will observe KYC and AML/CFT standards, follow usual reporting routine to the BB, and ensure compliance of regulations concerning duties or taxes applicable to the transactions, it noted.

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RMG workers in a Bangladesh factory. BBN file photo.

Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN)- At least 90 percent workers of the ready-made garments (RMG) sector will receive their wages through the digital payment system by the next 2021 as per the move of the government to build a digital Bangladesh.

Out of about 4.1 million RMG workers, around 1.5 million are currently getting their wages through the digital payment system.

The information was reveled at the “Bangladesh Digital Wages Summit”, organised by the Access to Information (a2i) Programme of the ICT Division and supported by the Cabinet Division, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the United Nations-based Better Than Cash Alliance, at the Radisson Blue Water Garden Hotel in Dhaka on Wednesday.

Industries Minister Nurul Majid Mahmud Humayun attended the opening panel discussion on “Scaling digital wages for employees and manufacturers” at the summit.

State Minister for ICT Division Zunaid Ahmed Palak, Deputy Governor of Bangladesh Bank Ahmed Jamal, President of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) Dr Rubana Huq, Resident Representative of United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Sudipto Mukerjee, International Lebour Organization (ILO) Country Director and UN Representative Tuomo Poutiainen and the Bangladesh Country Manager for Marks and Spencer Shwapna Bhowmick also took part in the discussion.

The opening panel discussion was moderated by the Policy Advisor of a2i Anir Chowdhury.

Managing Director of the United Nations-based Better Than Cash Alliance Dr Ruth Goodwin-Groen delivered the welcome speech.

In his speech, Humayun said digital payment system is an important channel through which the government is bringing the garment employees into the formal sector and allow them to access digital services and pay for it, while helping them transition.

He said the industries ministry will provide all sorts of support to the ready-made garments sector to leverage new technologies that will improve the lives of garment workers. “These efforts will, in turn, improve our country’s economic growth,” he added.

He said the country is moving forward to be a developed one under the prudent policy and dynamic leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

“Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is developing all sectors to achieve the targets of Vision-2021 and Vision-2041. We are very confidence that we will achieve the targets,” he added.

Zunaid Ahmed Palak said Bangladesh has specific targets of 2021 to become middle income country, 2024 for graduating from least developed countries (LDCs), 2030 for achieving the sustainable development goals (SDGs) and 2041 for developed country.

For achieving all of the goals, he said, Bangladesh will have to empower women as they are half of the total population. “Moreover, 80 percent of our RMG workers are women. Without ensuring financial empowerment, we cannot ensure the women empowerment,” he added.

Palak said the government has a specific target to go cash-less society within 2021. By 2021, when the country is going to celebrate 50 years of independent, at least 90 percent of our garments workers will get their wages through the digitized system, he added.

The state minister informed that now the government is developing ‘interoperable digital human transaction platform’ and under the platform, all the financial service providers will get the opportunities to work together.

“We are dedicating our services to coordinate, support and test innovative solutions to digitize payroll in order to empower garment workers, particularly women,” he added.

Ahmed Jamal said the central bank is committed to drive down costs and improve access to digital financial services through building an enabling environment.

Dr Ruth Goodwin-Groen said, “We are committing to help bring together the key public and private sector stakeholders who can take wage digitization in Bangladesh to the next level.”

Rubana Huq said, “Through digitizing wages, we are pledging to further promote financial benefits, such as cash-back, reward points and merchant discounts, to increase the value of wages.”

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Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN)- An international conference in Dhaka on Sunday called for harnessing blockchain technology to further promote growth, inclusion, service delivery and smart governance in Bangladesh.

ADB’s Bangladesh Resident Mission organized the event on 29-30 September 2019 at Bangabandhu International Conference Center in Dhaka.

Minister of Finance AHM Mustafa Kamal, and Prime Minister’s Advisor for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Dr. Tawfiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury BB were chief guest and special guest respectively at the conference “Harnessing Blockchain Technology for Development”. Ms. Farida Nasreen, Secretary (Acting), Economic Relations Division, Ministry of Finance delivered opening remarks while Mr. Manmohan Parkash, Country Director, Bangladesh Resident Mission, ADB gave welcome speech at the two-day event that ends on 30 September.

“Blockchain is a cutting-edge high-level creative technology that can revolutionize many areas of modern life by improving transparency, accountability and efficiency in service delivery, governance, finance sector, industries, trade and other areas,” said Country Director Manmohan Parkash.

“Through this international conference, we want to introduce the blockchain technology, inspire dialogues among stakeholders, identify areas where the technology can be used to unleash the growth potential of the country.”

“The burgeoning IT industry, well-educated youths, vibrant private sector, as well as the government can immensely benefit by the early adoption of home-grown blockchain technology solutions to resolve problems, create new startups and jobs, attract investments from technology companies, and develop world class business environment,” Country Director Mr. Parkash added.

Experts from Australia, India, Sweden and USA attended the event, along with policy makers, senior officials, private sector leaders and technology experts from Bangladesh.

The international conference aims to unleash the potential of Bangladesh for blockchain applications.

It also provides a venue to conduct dialogues with government, private sectors and academia to introduce the blockchain technology, and to identify areas where the technology can be used to unleash the growth potential of the country.

ADB is committed to achieving a prosperous, inclusive, resilient, and sustainable Asia and the Pacific, while sustaining its efforts to eradicate extreme poverty.

In 2018, it made commitments of new loans and grants amounting to $21.6 billion. Established in 1966, it is owned by 68 members—49 from the region.

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Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN)- Over half of the world’s population — an estimated 4.3 billion people — now use the Internet, and 90 per cent of all people are covered by at least basic data services, according to the World Bank (WB).

Some countries have very high levels of internet usage; the members of the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), a group of advanced economies, have 84 per cent individuals using the internet, the WB said in a blog post on Tuesday.

Some countries, such as Iceland or South Korea, count almost everyone as users. But what of the rest of the world? What holds back about half of the world’s population from using the internet?

We find some clues about what keeps people offline from the national surveys of households done in the Eastern Partnership (EaP) countries of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine.

The World Bank is working in the EaP countries as part of the EU4Digital initiative, supported by the European Union, and which aims to assist countries in designing or implementing their broadband internet development strategies.

In this group of countries, the share of individuals who use the internet regularly (in the three months prior to each country’s survey) varies between about 80 percent in Azerbaijan and 50–60 percent in Georgia and Ukraine.

These surveys each include questions about why people are offline, and the reasons are varied, providing some clues about how public policies might do more to get more people connected.
Access and affordability

Unsurprisingly, people are often offline because they do not have access to the networks. But beyond access, poor affordability is a challenge.

People across four of the EaP countries where data is available explain that they cannot afford a device to use the internet and refer to the high cost of access — either the monthly fee or the initial setup costs — as their major

reasons for not yet being connected.
For example, almost 60 percent of Moldovans who are not connected to the internet report the costs of devices (such as computers) being the impediment.

A lack of appeal?
But surprisingly, many of those offline also say that they lack the interest, need, or desire to connect to the internet. Over one quarter of Armenians who are not connected — both in urban and rural areas — report having no interest, desire or need to connect to the internet.

This response spells trouble in an increasingly digital world; people and businesses that are offline risk falling behind in terms of access to information, services, and markets.

Curiously, especially given the association of digital services with young people, there are about a third of unconnected youth in both Armenia and Georgia who say they are either not interested or do not think that they need to be connected to the internet.

At the same time, just over half of internet non-users ages 56 years-and-higher both in Armenia and Georgia do not want to connect to the internet or believe that they do not need it.

Some of this might be due to a lack of awareness of the benefits of getting online, or due to a lack of skills to use the internet in ways that might benefit the user.

For instance, in each of the EaP countries, more people could use online job search portals to find employment opportunities for all levels of skills and education.

In Georgia, as of 2018 for example, only 30 percent of internet users aged 15–29 years have searched or applied for a job online. Only one in eight rural internet users have used internet banking.

Hence, addressing the lack of skills to use the internet is part of the solution. In Azerbaijan, about one fifth of the urban population and one fourth of the rural say that they lack the appropriate digital skills. This varies across countries.

In Armenia, for example, a third more of rural respondents than urbanites noted the lack of skills as a barrier. The lack of skills to use the internet also remains true across all unconnected age groups in Armenia (15 per cent-19 per cent).

General education levels play a role. Over half of the people (55 percent) who have never used the internet in Armenia have secondary or less education, and a total of 85 percent of those who have not used the internet are aged 36 and above.

As of 2015, this education gap in connectivity is equally distributed among all levels of education for Armenians, with about 17 percent of people of all education levels not having the skills to use the internet.

What public policies might help?
Three types of efforts could help bridge this digital divide in use. First — and most obvious — are measures that increase access to the internet, enabling networks to go deeper into rural or remote areas.

Such measures would reduce the costs of network roll out and increase incentives for service providers to enter new markets — through competitive pressure or arrangements such as public-private partnerships.

Public agencies could also consider short-term efforts to increase affordability. Many countries have issued devices free to students, for instance.

Armenia had a successful program to improve financing terms to buy devices. Georgia has a program being rolled out that provides socially vulnerable households and small businesses in rural areas with vouchers that cover the cost of internet connection fees.

And third, programs make people more aware and improve the value of the internet to them would help make getting online more attractive. In Kosovo, the Government has organized a program to boost online participation and income generation of young people by training them to succeed on digital work platforms.

Malaysia has a range of programs to train people with lower incomes to work online or to set up online businesses. Increasing the range of public and private services delivered online — from internet banking to education — could also boost the attractiveness for a wider audience.

The digital divide is typically thought of in terms of access to networks. As statistics about internet adoption and use improve and deepen, we get a more nuanced view of what might be holding people back from getting online.

Addressing the causes of a digital divide in use — by making services widely accessible, affordable, and appealing — will allow more people to take advantage of the opportunities and benefit in a world going digital.

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Bangladesh Bank Headquarters

Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN)- Country’s payment service providers will have to take prompt remedial measures against frauds and forgery for ensuring public confidence in the financial system, the Bangladesh Bank (BB) has said.

Cross-border financial transactions need to be dealt with due diligence because of increasing cyber threat, complexity of transactions and involvement of multiple cross-frontier jurisdictions, it warned.

The BB’s latest warning came against the backdrop of rising trend in Fintech ecosystem in the last couple of years mainly on payment and clearing systems in Bangladesh.

Fintech is the new technology and innovation that aims to compete with traditional financial methods in the delivery of financial services.

The use of smartphones for mobile banking and investing services are examples of technologies aiming to make financial services more accessible to the general public.

“… Fintech is in nascent stage to pose any major systemic threat, it still requires close regulatory supervision and monitoring due to its constant evolutionary nature with the latest technology,” the BB said in a study on the Financial Stability Implications of Fintech in Bangladesh, released recently.

Fostering well-regulated Fintech solutions in cross-border foreign exchange transactions would enhance remittance inflow through legal channels, which has favourable implications for financial stability, according to the quarterly Financial Stability Assessment Report for July-September 2018.

On the other hand, extensive use of Fintech such as credit cards for purchasing foreign goods and services might cause leakage of foreign currency from the country, it noted.

“Easily available Fintech solutions might incite transactions beyond legal boundary like hundi,” the report cautioned.

From the current perspective of Bangladesh, likely vulnerability of Fintech on financial stability may transmit largely through payment system mechanism, the stability report said.

Apart from the payment system, which might be susceptible to cyber security and other operational risks, the systemic risk from other channels of Fintech is still considerably low, according to the BB.

“Fintech paves the way for payment system development, which can contribute to develop a more integrated, efficient and less frictional financial system,” the report explained.

It said a large number of players constitute Fintech ecosystem in Bangladesh including regulators, Fintech companies, investors, financial institutions and end-users.

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Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN)- Siemens Bangladesh has partnered with the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) aiming to sharpen its focus on employers’ of choice and great place to work among potential aspirants.

The event conducted by Siemens included plenary and engagement sessions on driving business growth, the workforce of tomorrow, diversity, digitalization era and compliance.

The sessions, held at BUET campus in Dhaka on Saturday, were engaging and the spotlight was on harnessing talent for the prosperity and economy of Bangladesh.

The event was graced by Professor Dr. Saiful Islam, Vice Chancellor of BUET, Michael Schultheiss, Deputy Head of Mission of German Embassy in Dhaka, Professor Dr. Md. Shafiqul Islam, Head of EEE Department of BUET and Prabal Bose, Managing Director & CEO, Siemens Bangladesh Ltd.

Heads of the different departments of BUET, Directors of Institutes, respected teachers from BUET and about 300 final year students from EEE department participated at the event.

“We take great pride in contributing towards Bangladesh’s infrastructure development and are committed to the economy, people and workforce in Bangladesh,” said Prabal Bose, Managing Director and CEO, Siemens Bangladesh.

He also said digitalization is changing our world and has tremendous potential.

Siemens has been working in Bangladesh for the last 62 years and is very bullish on the growth prospects of the country, he added.

“We do believe that along with our focus on customers, the workforce of tomorrow will be a major growth driver in the digital transformation of the various business sectors and verticals,” Mr. Bose explained.

Bangladesh has been one of the fastest growing economies of the world and initiatives like employers’ of choice will certainly help in the growth story of the country.

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Photo: IndianMoney.com

Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN) - Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) system of Bangladesh has faced technical glitch for the last couple of days, bankers said.

The technical glitch has been occurred due to up-gradation works of the system by the central bank of Bangladesh.
Earlier on October 29, 2015, the central bank of Bangladesh formally launched the RTGS system aiming to facilitate business activities across the country.

Talking to the BBN, a senior executive of a leading private commercial bank (PCB) said payment instructions through RTGS are not executed properly mainly due to poor connectivity with the Bangladesh Bank (BB), the country’s central bank.

When contacted, a senior BB official said there was a technical glitch for up-gradation works. “The banks have been advised to use alternative channels so that payment is not hampered.”

The BB team is working to address the issue, which might take a few days to resolve, according to another BB official.
Under the RTGS system, any member-banks can transfer minimum Tk 0.01 million to another bank instantly.

RTGS can be defined as the continuous (real-time) settlement of fund 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 individually without netting with other transactions.

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This photo is taken from Bitcell

Colorado,USA (BBN)- A team led by the University of Colorado Boulder caught a supermassive black hole in a distant galaxy snacking on gas and then "burping" – not once but twice.

The study's leader and assistant professor at CU Boulder's Department of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences, Julie Comerford, said the black hole under study appears to have essentially blasted out jets of bright light from the gas it inhaled – twice over the course of about 100,000 years,  reported the Bitcell.

While astronomers have predicted such objects can flicker on and off as a result of gas-feeding events, this study is the strongest evidence yet that supermassive black holes do indeed switch on and off over timescales that are short compared to the age of the universe, which is 13.8 billion years old.

Supermassive black holes – which are millions of times heavier than our sun and are believed to be at the heart of virtually every galaxy – are like regular black holes in basic ways: Regions with such strong gravitational effects that nothing, not even light, can escape. But when the areas around supermassive black holes emit light stemming from feeding episodes, they are known as quasars, Comerford said.

"We are seeing this object feast, burp and nap, and then feast, burp and nap once again, which theory had predicted. Fortunately, we happened to observe this galaxy in a moment where we could clearly see evidence for both events."

A paper on the subject was published in a recent issue of the Astrophysical Journal. Comerford presented the team's findings in a Jan. 11 press briefing at the 231st meeting of the American Astronomical Society, held Jan. 8-12 in Washington D.C.

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