Dutch-Bangla Bank Ltd has rolled out virtual cards for individual app developers and programmers, solving the difficulties they face when making international transactions online. 

A virtual card has an annual card limit of $300.

The amount can be used to pay for games, software licence, mobile and games application development, vendor certification exam fee, domain registration, hosting, cloud service and hackathon on online market places such as Windows, Android, iOS, BlackBerry and Firefox.

Sayem Ahmed, chairman of DBBL; KS Tabrez, managing director of the private commercial bank; and Shameem Ahsan, president of Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services, inaugurated the service at a press conference at the Westin hotel in Dhaka on Tuesday.

Speaking at the event, Ahsan said individual app developers and programmers have been facing troubles for not having the payment service in Bangladesh.

BASIS has been negotiating with Bangladesh Bank for a long time to take the necessary steps to this effect.

The BB directed banks to issue virtual cards in 2014 to facilitate international payments online.

“We hope the initiative will mitigate the hazards the individual developers and programmers were facing during online international transactions,” he said in a statement.

Ahsan said the first step on the path to the app stores is to register as a developer in order to get started with app development.

Global debit card system is essential to facilitate the payments for app store registration fees and domains, and participation at boot camps and courses offered by different international organisations on apps development.

As per directive from the central bank, BASIS will verify whether an applicant meets the criteria of being a developer or programmer.

BASIS will then authorise the authentic applicants to be issued the virtual cards.

To get the cards, applicants will have to show the certificate provided to participants during programmes on mobile apps, games and hackathons run by BASIS or the ICT Division.

Initially, BASIS members used to enjoy the service. But now it is open to students, IT professionals and entrepreneurs, according to the association.

Ahsan hopes the youth will now be encouraged to join IT-related professions.

DBBL has started the service at all of its branches, said officials of the bank.

BASIS Senior Vice President Russell T Ahmed, Secretary General Uttam Kumar Paul and Director Suny Md Ashraf Khan were also present.