Staff Reporter :
The Bangladesh Bank has made mandatory for commercial banks to provide EFT (Electronic Funds Transfer) and Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) services from all their branches by December 31 this year.
The central bank recently issued a circular in this regard 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 scheduled banks have also been advised to take initiatives for providing internet-banking services to their customers’ level after ensuring necessary security.
They (banks) have been given nearly seven months for installing all necessary software and hardware to prepare all bank branches across the country for providing such services to the clients, according to a central bank senior official.
Around 15 banks are taking preparations to cater internet-banking services to their customers using the central bank’s national payment swish (NPS), he said.
Meanwhile, three commercial banks out of the 15 have already completed their testing with the BB in this connection, the central banker official told reporters while replying to a query.
“We have taken the latest move aiming to facilitate the country’s overall business activities through encouraging the usage of electronic inter-bank payments,” the senior official while explaining the main objective of the notification.
He also said the central bank will link its NPS with the banks after completing official process.
“We will submit a plan to the top management of the central bank shortly for expediting internet-banking services,” the central bank official said, without elaborating.
“We can not reach optimal level of electronic payment systems mainly due to the lack of electronic infrastructure in different bank branches across the country,” he said.
Earlier on October 29, 2015, the Bangladesh Bank 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).
