The Bangladesh Bank on Monday extended the interim licensing period of state-owned Nagad, a rapidly growing mobile financial service, by another three months until September 30.
Within this fresh timeframe, Nagad, a financial arm of Bangladesh Post Office, will have to comply with the guidelines of the central bank.
Earlier, Nagad sought an extension of the interim licensing period for the fourth time to complete the process in line with the central bank's requirements, which was set to expire on June 30.
One of the licensing criteria is that there is a need to be a subsidiary company under Bangladesh Post Office and Nagad will run under it, where the Posts and Telecommunications Division will secure 51% share of it and the rest will get 49%.
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To comply with this, the Post Office Act needs to be amended, and process is ongoing to this end.
Tanvir A Mishuk, managing director of Nagad, said that the overall work flow had slowed down due to the Covid-19 pandemic, which also slowed the licensing process.
“To keep our service uninterrupted, the time has been extended for 3 months.”
Earlier, the Posts and Telecommunications Division applied before the central bank to extend the licensing period till December 31 to comply with all the conditions.
Nagad is now the second-largest MFS provider in Bangladesh while it has enhanced the market competition within two years of its inception. More than Tk700 crore is being transacted a day through Nagad which has some 5.20 crore users.
It obtained more than 30% market share in its two-year journey.
Currently, 15 banks have MFS operations, though the license number reached to 30 in on point.
