Bangladesh Bank taps Fime to launch domestic card scheme
Bangladesh Bank, the country’s central bank, has partnered with fintech company Fime to launch a domestic card scheme as it looks to boost financial inclusion across the country.
Fime to help Bangladesh Bank launch domestic card scheme
Over the course of a six-year partnership, Fime will help Bangladesh Bank establish an independent payment infrastructure to create the “stable, sovereign economic platform it needs” to deliver financial security to its citizens.
Fime’s consultants will first help the central bank define its payments strategy and prepare a certification body framework before rolling the scheme out and onboarding users.
Founded in 1962 with its headquarters in Paris, France, Fime helps its clients to create and launch solutions in payments, smart mobility, biometrics, authentication and open banking. The firm has supported a number of domestic card schemes across the world, including India’s RuPay scheme.
Fime says its suite of solutions will be “fundamental” to the set-up and management of the scheme’s testing and certification infrastructure “and will give the country’s payments stakeholders a single solution for all certification needs”.
“Bangladesh is an emerging market with a growing payments ecosystem and a strong desire for digital solutions that advance the Smart Bangladesh Mission,” comments Mezbaul Haque, executive director at Bangladesh Bank.
Angaj Bhandari, VP of MEA, India and South Asia at Fime, says the card scheme will help the region by boosting the penetration of digital payments and increasing financial inclusion.
“Our experts in South Asia will deliver global expertise at a local level, tailoring the domestic scheme and its digital payments architecture to the unique requirements of the Bangladeshi market,” Bhandari adds.
