NBFIs given 3 weeks for RTGS introduction

Bangladesh Bank on Tuesday asked all non-bank financial institutions (NBFIs) to introduce real-time gross settlement (RTGS) transactions in all their branches from June 1, 2022.

The central bank issued a circular to managing directors and chief executive officers of all NBFIs asking them to get prepared for the RTGS services within the deadline.

“The NBFIs have been brought under the RTGS to make fund settlement done under the EDSMoney platform more dynamic and on a real-time time basis,” said the BB circular.

EDSMoney stands for the Electronic Dealing System, which is a web-based dealing platform for capturing, recording, and settling taka-denominated transactions. It is used for interbank money market participants.

The BB, however, said initially NBFIs will be allowed to use RTGS for institutional transactions, not individual ones.

The central bank of Bangladesh introduced the RTGS in 2015 to make settlements in real-time. All banks are now using the system to provide their customers services faster.