A file photo shows a man using ATM at a booth of a private bank in Dhaka. Bangladesh Bank is likely to fix a rate of Tk 15 for each interbank transaction through automated teller machines of any commercial bank. — New Age photo

Bangladesh Bank is likely to fix a rate of Tk 15 for each interbank transaction through automated teller machines of any commercial bank under its national payment switch project, said BB officials.
A BB official told New Age on Thursday that the clients would be able to transact on a common platform at ATM booths with such low cost once the NPS is put in place.
‘For example, clients of many banks can now only use the ATM booths of the respective banks, but they will be able to use any ATM booth of any bank under the project after the service is activated,’ he explained.
He said the central bank hoped that the clients would get the facility from the first month of 2013.
He said most of the commercial banks now impose a charge ranging from Tk 35 to Tk 75 to for one-time use of their ATM booths which the BB considered was too high.
Another BB official said the central bank has already selected 31 banks to implement the NPS project. Other banks would gradually join in the programme by 2013, he added.
The selected Banks are: Dutch-Bangla Bank, BRAC Bank, Standard Chartered Bank, Islami Bank Bangladesh, Eastern Bank, Pubali Bank, Dhaka Bank, AB Bank, Bank Asia, Agrani Bank, Prime Bank, Standard Bank, The City Bank, Southeast Bank, United Commercial Bank, Rupali Bank, EXIM Bank, Mutual Trust Bank, NCC Bank, Bangladesh Commerce Bank, BASIC Bank, ICB Islami Bank, IFIC Bank, Jamuna Bank, Janata Bank, Mercantile Bank, National Bank, Social Islami Bank, Trust Bank, Sonali Bank and Uttara Bank.
According to the latest BB data, 40 commercial banks are maintaining 2,958 ATM booths across the country.
The banks have so far issued around 5 lakh credit and debit cards to the clients, while about 5 lakh Bangladeshi clients are using the international payment scheme cards like VISA, MasterCard and American Express, the official said.
The BB will have interfaces with all the major international payment scheme cards so that the banks will be able to send the transactions originating from those international branded cards through NPS, he said.
‘The BB has already started to set up the NPS infrastructure with a $5 million financial support from the World Bank,’ he said. The NPS would be ready for operation by December, he said.
The NPS would act as a ‘mother switch’ and gradually connect all the ‘child switches’ owned or shared by the scheduled banks in the country.
The child switches, which are ATM, point on sale, electronic commerce, internet banking, mobile banking and other online related banking services offered by banks, would be brought onto a common platform of the NPS under the central bank strengthening project.
NPS will support transactions made through cards or account number (direct debit/credit), clear and settle these electronic transactions through the settlement accounts of all the scheduled banks maintained with Bangladesh Bank.