The Bangladesh Bank (BB), country’s central bank, launched an automated clearing house at its Rajshahi office to ensure faster settlement of transactions and payment systems.

BB’s Deputy Governor Ziaul Hasan formally inaugurated the system at function in Rajshahi city on Thursday.

General manager of BB Rajshahi Office Zinnatul Bakiya chaired the function. Executive director of the BB Dasgupta Asim Qumar and managing director of Rajshahi Krishi Unnayan Bank Pradip Kumar Dutta spoke at the ceremony as special guests.

In his speech, the deputy governor said the new system will enable the banks to exchange cheques automatically on the online. Physical cheques will not be needed to send to the clearinghouse at BB, he added.

Under the new system, payments will be settled using automated cheque clearing system and electronic fund transfer among all the public and private commercial banks in the region.

BSS adds: Addressing the opening ceremony, BB Deputy Governor Ziaul Hassan Siddiqui, said the banks branches are required to make arrangements and develop infrastructure to meet the requirements of the new system.

“We’re working to help the commercial banks adapt to the new system so that they can able to avail the total benefits of the modern system,” he added.

He also said the central bank has already asked the commercial banks to procure necessary software and hardware for establishing link between the bank concerned and the central bank.

Siddiqui said that the advent of the BACH moves the region to the forefront of modern payment processing and puts the country amongst the world’s leaders in the use of such solutions.

“We moved one step ahead of many other countries by introducing this modern technology-based payment and transaction system,” he added.

A large number of executives and senior officers of BB and different other scheduled banks were present at the ceremony.

News: Daily Sun/Bangladesh/ Apr-08-2011