TDS Desk:

Bangladesh Bank (BB) will soon launch a unified instant payment system to curb the growing demand for cash, said BB Governor Ahsan H Mansur.

“The demand for cash has been rising at an annual rate of 10 percent, a trend that has persisted in recent years. To reverse this pattern and bring greater transparency to economic activities, the central bank is preparing to introduce a unified instant payment system,” he said.

He made the remarks at a discussion titled “Stakeholder Discussion on Interoperable Payment in Bangladesh,” organised by the Policy Research Institute with support from the Gates Foundation in Dhaka on Monday.

All financial institutions, including banks, mobile financial service (MFS) providers, microfinance institutions, and digital banks, will be linked to this single platform, he added.

The increasing demand for cash has also pushed up costs for banks. The banking sector now spends around Tk 20,000 crore annually on cash handling, according to the governor.

He further said the government is losing an estimated Tk 1.53 lakh crore in revenue due to the rising reliance on cash.

Mansur also mentioned that the process of introducing digital banks in Bangladesh is underway. At the same time, support from the Gates Foundation is being utilised to launch an interoperable instant payment system.

“The Binimoy project failed, but this time we aim to implement an effective system by drawing on proven international experience,” he said.