Bangladesh Bank issues a circular

The central bank asked commercial banks to provide EFT (Electronic Funds Transfer) and Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) services from all branches by December 31.

To this effect, the Bangladesh Bank (BB) issued a circular Monday, asking the managing directors and chief executive officers of all scheduled banks for taking effective measures to build up public awareness about electronic-payment systems.

The banks have also been advised to take initiatives for providing internet-banking services to their customers' level after ensuring necessary security.

"We've taken the latest move aiming to facilitate the country's overall business activities through encouraging the usage of electronic interbank payments," a BB senior official told the FE while explaining the main objective of the notification.

The central bank gave more than seven months to the banks for installing all necessary software and hardware to prepare all bank branches across the country for providing such services to the clients, the BB official explained.

Meanwhile, around 15 banks are taking preparations to cater internet- banking services to their customers using the BB's national payment swish (NPS), according to another central bank official.

"Of these, three banks have already completed their testing with the BB in this connection," the central banker said while replying to a query.

He also said the central bank will link its NPS with the banks after completing official process.

"We'll submit a plan to the top management of the central bank shortly for expediting internet-banking services," the central banker said, without elaborating.

Earlier on October 29, 2015, the central bank of Bangladesh formally launched the Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) system aiming to facilitate business activities across the country.

Under the RTGS system, any member-banks will be able to transfer minimum Tk 0.01 million to another bank instantly.

The 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.  

"We can't reach optimal level of electronic payment systems mainly due to the lack of electronic infrastructure in different bank branches across the country," another BB official said.