Bangladesh plans to launch taka-rupee debit cards by December

Bangladesh tries to reduce reliance on the dollar for international payments

Bangladesh is set to launch dual-currency debit cards allowing travellers to use them for payments in India.

The dual-currency card will be launched by December, Bangladesh Bank Governor Abdur Rouf Talukder said after opening a system for trade transactions with India in the rupee on Tuesday.

“We are preparing for that. We can launch the dual currency cards by December once the Indian side clears the system,” he said.

International companies, such as Visa and Mastercard, provide banks in Bangladesh with debit and credit card services for domestic and international transactions.

They are taking away a huge amount of foreign currency for the services. If Bangladesh launches its own debit card, the country’s dependency on foreign organisations for card-based transactions will fall.

According to the central bank, customers made transactions worth Tk 13.63 billion through ATMs and POS terminals on a daily average in March. Until March, the banks in Bangladesh issued nearly 31 million cards.