Muktdesh Desk: Twelve applications have been submitted to the Bangladesh Bank’s designated website to establish a digital bank. The applicants include fintech firms and mobile financial service providers.
The 12 institutions that have applied are British Bangla Digital Bank PLC, Digital Banking of Bhutan DK, Amar Digital Bank 22 MFI, 36 Digital Bank PLC, Boost Robi, Amar Bank, App Bank Farmers, Nova Digital Bank Banglalink and Square, Maitree Digital Bank PLC, Beneficial Digital Bank, Munafa Islami Digital Bank and Bikash Digital Bank.
Applications for establishing a digital bank were invited on August 26. At that time, the last date for receiving applications was September 30. Later, Bangladesh Bank extended the time to November 2.
Earlier, Bangladesh Bank made the digital bank policy on June 14, 2023. According to that policy, the minimum paid-up capital for establishing a digital bank was Tk 125 crore. Recently, the central bank increased it to Tk 3 billion.
Tk 5 billion is required to obtain a conventional bank license. Digital bank licenses will be issued under the Banking Companies Act of 1991. Payment services will be operated under the Bangladesh Payment and Settlement System Regulations of 2014.
