BB executive director Dasgupta Asim Kumar told New Age on Tuesday that the central bank governor Atiur Rahman would inaugurate the NPSB while senior executives of all banks would attend the programme at the BB headquarters.

He said that Southeast Bank and Pubali Bank had already confirmed the BB that the two banks would be the first to include their services with the NPSB.

He said the other banks would incorporate into the NPSB within 2-3 months.
Another BB official said that the central bank would initially bring the automated teller machine transaction under its NPSB so that the clients would be able to transact the card-based payment at a lower cost, he said.

The internet banking, mobile banking, kiosk and point-on-sale along will gradually be brought under the NPSB, he said.

The BB is likely to set a lower charge rate at a range between Tk 10 and Tk 15 for each inter-bank transaction through ATM of any commercial bank under its NPSB.

Most of the commercial banks now impose charges ranging from Tk 35 to Tk 75 for one-time of inter-bank transaction through ATM booths which the BB considers are too high, the official said.

Around 36 banks are now maintaining the ATM transaction and four payment system operators are playing role for settling the transaction. The PSOs are — DBBL, Q-Cash, CashLink and Omnibus, he said.

For this reason, banks impose different charge for inter-bank transaction through ATM, he said.  
After implementation of the NPSB, the BB will control the whole ATM transaction of the banking sector instead of PSOs, he said.

He said that the 15 banks and the two PSOs had earlier agreed to join with the NPSB at the first stage, but they failed to keep the commitment due to a lack of preparation except Southeast Bank and Pubali Bank.

Under the NPSB, the clients will initially be able to withdraw their cash, to inquire their account balance and to get mini statement from the ATM booths.

All the banks will gradually participate with the NPSB.

A BB circular on Monday said that the required hardware and the standard software had already been installed at the Data Centre and Disaster Recovery site of the BB in a bid to implement the NPSB.

The BB circular said that the scheduled banks would have to complete their preparations within the shortest possible of time to be incorporated into the NPSB.

In the programme, the BB has spent $5 million supported from the World Bank under the central bank strengthening project. As per condition of the World Bank, the BB will have to complete the setting process of NPSB within December 31, 2012.

As part of the move, the BB has recently issued the bank identification numbers for local proprietary cards of 36 banks, the post office and non-bank financial institution Lanka-Bangla Finance Ltd.