The Bangladesh Bank has taken a move to introduce a system for instant settlement of inter-bank transactions by January 2016.
The new ‘real time gross settlement system’ will replace the existing deferred net settlement system as per which the banks settle transactions in 1-2 days, BB officials said.BB executive director Dasgupta Asim Kumar told New Age on Monday that the central bank would introduce the new system with the financial support from the Asian Development Bank.
The ADB will give $1.80 million to set up the hardware and the software required for the new mechanism while the World Bank will provide technical support for the programme, he said.
He hoped that the BB would float the tender for the RTGS by January next year.
The RTGS is a fund transfer system where transfer of money or government securities takes place from one bank to another on a real time basis, a BB official said.
The settlement in real time means payment transaction does not need any waiting period. The transactions are settled as soon as they are processed.
Banks can now transact the high value cheque by 3:00pm in a working day while the regular value cheque by 5:00pm and the electronic fund transfer by 12:00am, the BB official said.
Similarly, for the other payment systems like automated teller machine, point of sales, mobile banking and internet banking, different time schedules are set in the present DNS system, he said.
The transaction in the payment systems among banks will be held on a real time basis after the launch of the RTGS, meaning that a bank will not wait to get liquidity it will demand from other banks.
The RTGS will help businesspeople to get liquidity from the banks without any delay, another BB official said.
He said, ‘The BB will ask the scheduled banks to set up software and hardware required for operating the RTGS, so that clients can get facility of the new system from the banks.’
He said that the finance ministry had already approved the project of the RTGS and the planning ministry was likely to approve it in a few days.
India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka have already introduced the RTGS for providing speedy transaction services to businessmen, he said.
-With New Age input
