Bangladesh Bank has selected a total of 31 public and private sector banks to bring electronic payment under a common platform, authorities concerned said.

This will be implemented under a project styled National Payment Switch (NPS) to facilitate easier transactions between banks and thus provide smooth services to customers at ATM booths.

The NPS, being set up at the central bank with a $5 million financial support from the World Bank, is scheduled to start functioning from next December.

The rest of the commercial banks will come under the system the next year, the BB authorities said.

“NPS will work as electronic clearing house for e-transactions, which will bring a revolutionary change in the inter-bank transaction,” BB Executive Director and Director of the NPS project Ahsan Ullah told the daily sun.

As many as 15 of such switches will be set up to cover all the commercial banks in course of time, he pointed out.

If entirely covered, the customers will be able to use any ATM booth of any bank, authorities said. Currently, the ATM users can use only the booths of the respective banks and face some troubles in using them. Bangladesh Bank is likely to fix a rate of Tk 15 for each inter-bank transaction through ATM (asynchronous transfer mode).

The commercial banks now charge Tk 35-Tk 70 for single use of their ATM booths, rates that are considered extremely high.

BB data show a total of 40 commercial banks are maintaining about 3,000 ATM booths across the country. Around 500,000 credit and debit cards have so far been issued to the clients.

About 500,000 Bangladeshi clients are using international payment scheme cards such as VISA, MasterCard and American Express, according to the central bank.

NPS works as a ‘mother switch’ which will gradually connect all ‘child switches’ owned or shared by the scheduled banks, the authorities said. ATM, point on sale, electronic commerce, internet banking, mobile banking and all other online banking services offered by banks will be covered by the “mother switch”.

The primarily selected banks are: Agrani Bank, Prime Bank, Standard Bank, The City Bank, Southeast Bank, United Commercial Bank, Rupali Bank, EXIM Bank, Mutual Trust Bank, NCC Bank, Bangladesh Commerce Bank, BASIC Bank, ICB Islami Bank, IFIC Bank, Jamuna Bank, Janata Bank, Mercantile Bank, National Bank, Social Islami Bank, Trust Bank, Sonali Bank, Uttara Bank, Dutch-Bangla Bank, BRAC Bank, Standard Chartered Bank, Islami Bank Bangladesh, Eastern Bank, Pubali Bank, Dhaka Bank, AB Bank and Bank Asia.

The Daily Sun/ Bangladesh/ 22-May-2012