Nagad Digital Bank all set to get licence

Nagad is all set to get licence for its 'Nagad Digital Bank', as it has successfully met the criteria after getting the letter of intent (LoI) from the central bank in October last year.

The details of the proposed Nagad Digital Bank were presented in the board meeting, which gave the final approval, Bangladesh Bank (BB) Executive Director and Spokesperson Md Mezbaul Haque told The Daily Star.

"So, it can be said that Nagad Digital Bank is going to get the final approval."

The central bank's board of directors chaired by Board Chairman and Governor Abdur Rouf Talukder took the decision of giving the licence today in a meeting.

The banking watchdog has also decided to give six months' time to the proposed Kori Digital Bank to meet the LoI criteria -- the conditions which a digital bank should fulfil to get a licence.

The BB spokesperson said the proposed Kori Digital Bank wanted more six months to fulfil the central bank criteria and the board approved it.

Nagad is now running its mobile financial services (MFS) operation without receiving a full-fledged licence from the central bank as it did not fulfil all licensing criteria.

At one point, it wanted to run its MFS operations with a non-bank financial institution (NBFI) licence and it obtained the licence in May last year.

In August 2023, Nagad surrendered the NBFI licence and sought a digital bank licence.