Bangladesh Bank (BB) and InfoTech Global Pte Ltd of Singapore have signed an agreement yesterday involving IBCS-PRIMAX Software (Bangladesh) Ltd. (BASIS Member) as the local operating agent to implement the e-payment system among banks from a common platform.
It will operate under a National Payment Switch (NPS) and is being be funded under a World Bank supported project for strengthening the e-banking system.
Commercial banks having an ATM/POS/e-Payment Gateways/Mobile payment switches or being connected to any other shared switch network will be able to send inter-bank payment instructions to the NPS for clearing and settlement purpose. There will be absolute interoperability among the private sector electronic payment networks and also pave the way for cross boarder electronic payment regime.
NPS will also connect the e-Payment Gateway of Public Accounts Department of Bangladesh Bank to be installed shortly. A bank, which does not have its own switch, will be able to connect to NPS through a third party switch operator. It will also have a single interface with all the international gateways like VISA, MasterCard and AMEX being able to send and receive settlement files as all the transactions will be settled or routed through it.
Additionally, it will be able to settle the Bangladeshi Taka transactions made through cards issued and acquired within Bangladesh. Transactions made through cards either issued or acquired outside Bangladesh and transactions made in foreign currency will be routed to the respective international gateways through this Switch.
Stakeholders of this project include the commercial banks, Bangladesh Bank itself as banker to the government and the settlement authority as the central bank of the country, Non-bank payment service provider/operators, GOB, software developers for emerging e-commerce industry and the general population who are the beneficiary of these services.
