Govt pressure led to closure of interoperable payment platform in 2020: Cenbank official
According to sources, during the previous Awami League administration, the government introduced a separate digital transaction platform called Binimoy as an alternative to the central bank’s National Payment Switch Bangladesh (NPSB) interoperable system.
Bangladesh Bank had launched a single Interoperable Payment System in 2020 to enable seamless transactions between banks, mobile financial services (MFS), and payment service providers (PSP).
However, the bank was forced to shut it down following government pressure, said Mohammad Rashed, additional director of the Payment Systems Department at Bangladesh Bank, adding that the central bank has recently reintroduced the same system after five years.
He made the disclosure on Monday (27 October) while speaking at a panel discussion titled "Cashless Economy and Financial Inclusion" during the Economic Reform Summit 2025 held at a hotel in Dhaka.
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According to sources, during the previous Awami League administration, the government introduced a separate digital transaction platform called Binimoy as an alternative to the central bank's National Payment Switch Bangladesh (NPSB) interoperable system.
The platform was developed by the ICT Division's Innovation Design and Entrepreneurship Academy (iDEA) at a cost of around Tk65 crore. However, under the current Bangladesh Bank governor, the Binimoy platform has been shut down.
Rashed said, "After we launched the interoperable payment system through NPSB, the government decided to develop its own platform. But for political reasons and policy decisions, we were forced to halt our progress."
"In an earlier session, one policymaker asked, 'Why is central bank independence necessary?' – this is a real example of that," he added.
Explaining the central bank's current approach, Rashed said, "We are now moving toward an open and competitive model where banks and payment service providers will compete to offer better services. This will reduce transaction costs for customers."
At present, bank-to-bank transfers cost around Tk10 per transaction, of which about 0.85% goes as network or "vision" fees. "We believe competition will help bring these charges down further. The goal is to ensure transparency and give users greater freedom in how they manage their money," he said.
"Customers will have the freedom to decide whether to transfer money between bank accounts or keep it in their mobile wallets," Rashed said. "We want to encourage people to use their bank accounts more actively – there are already about 14 crore accounts in the country."
He noted that Bangladesh currently has around 34 crore savings and current accounts in total, including those maintained by microfinance institutions such as Grameen Bank and other large NGOs.
"We hope that by next month, leading microfinance institutions will also be integrated into our platform," he added.
"The current process of sending money is still cumbersome – users must enter account numbers, names and other details. We want to make it simpler so that users can complete transactions with a single click via mobile apps," the central bank official said.
He revealed that Bangladesh Bank plans to roll out a unified "Bangla QR Code" by next year.
"Each bank account or wallet will have a unique QR code, and users will be able to send money by scanning it – regardless of the bank or MFS provider. This will be a major breakthrough for the country's payment ecosystem," he said.
"We expect that once the Bangla QR Code is introduced across 10 crore bank accounts, Bangladesh's digital payment landscape will enter a new era," he added.
