Bangladesh halts launch of interoperable mobile financial services over ‘glitch’

The authorities have halted the launch of interoperable mobile financial services or MFS due to what a Bangladesh Bank spokesman describes as a “a technical glitch”.

Serajul Islam, an executive director of the central bank, said they were not sure when the services can be lunched after the “last-minute discovery of the glitch” on Tuesday.

“We are trying to resolve the issue in the quickest possible time,” he said.

“We are waiting for the next order (of the central bank),” said Shamsuddin Haider Dalim, the head of corporate communications at bKash, Bangladesh’s largest MFS provider in terms of subscriber base.

Money can be transferred between bKash, Nagad, Rocket and other firms once the interoperable services are fully launched.

The customers will also be able to make transactions between banks and the MFS providers through the National Payment Switch.

The banks and companies that have finished testing the services successfully would begin allowing the transactions on Tuesday, the central bank had said in a statement last week.

Those yet to prepare for the launch must start providing the services within Mar 31, 2021, it had added.

An MFS firm will have to pay 0.8 percent of the money received from another firm.

The company from which the customer sends the amount will get the fees.

The fees will be 0.45 percent for transactions between banks and MFS companies.

The customers will not have to pay the new fees while the fees to withdraw cash remain unchanged.