Bangladesh Bank has issued new instructions to make bank-to-bank digital transactions more orderly.
The minimum rate of merchant discount rate (MDR) or service fee has been fixed at 1% (including VAT) for merchant payments using Bangla QR code under the National Payment Switch Bangladesh (NPSB) platform.
On Wednesday (July 1), Bangladesh Bank's Payment Systems Division-2 (PSD-2) issued a circular in this regard, signed by director Md Sharafat Ullah Khan and with immediate effect.
The circular said that earlier, the merchant discount rate limit was fixed for transactions made through NPSB and government payment systems through card schemes at Point of Sale (POS) and Bangla QR code-based transactions.
This new rate has been fixed only for merchant payments based on Bangla QR codes, keeping all other fees, charges and conditions of the existing circular unchanged.
According to the new instructions, the acquiring bank or institution will be able to collect a minimum MDR of 1% (including VAT) from the merchant for accepting merchant payments through Bangla QR codes using bank accounts, debit cards, prepaid cards, credit cards, mobile financial services (MFS) and payment service providers (PSPs).
However, the circular also mentions that the acquiring bank or institution can conduct promotional campaigns on its own initiative to encourage the expansion of digital transactions.