Bangladesh Bank Governor Atiur Rahman inaugurated the two day long SAARC Payment Council conference in Cox’s Bazar on Thursday..

The meeting is being held with the aim of cutting down on remittance bringing a huge population devoid of banking coverage within its ambit.

The conference is underway in Hotel Sea Royal Tulip Pearl with twenty representatives of the central banks of South Asian countries and is scheduled to end on Friday.

“Senior officials of the central banks of the eight SAARC nations have been exploring ways to simplify bank transactions. This time, they will discuss ways to reduce remittance costs to bring people outside bank coverage into the monetary system,” said Atiur Rahman.

He said though SAARC itself has shown lesser movement, apex banks of the SAARC countries meet regularly and learn from each other.

The SAARC Payment Council was formed during a meeting of the finance ministers in 2007.

With the latest Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) already in place, the governor called for initiatives in the setting up what is being described as the SAARC payment platform.

Atiur also pointed out that millions of taka was being transacted through ‘bKash’. If ‘bkash’ ran in foreign countries, then Bangladeshi expatriates living there could use ‘bkash’ to send money. This would have a double benefit as transaction will be quicker and low-cost remittance would also be possible.

The governor expressed that Bangladesh performed remarkably in the mobile banking sector and SAARC countries must share their experience regarding mobile financial service and agent banking as well.

Bangladesh Bank Deputy Governor Najnin Sultan, too, spoke at the function.