The Bangladesh Bank on Wednesday appointed administrator for the first time at a mobile financial service, Nagad, cancelling its current board of directors.
The BB on the day issued an order appointing its director Muhommad Badiuzzaman Dider as administrator to the MFS, the second largest MFS provider in the country.
Didar was also transferred from Chattogram Office to head office on the same day to perform the duty.
He will be accompanied with six more BB officials for helping his activities at Nagad, it said.
The officials are additional director Md Habibur Rahman,聽 joint directors Anwar Ullah, Polash Mondal, Abu Sadat Mohammad Yasin, deputy directors Choyon Biswas and Md Ayub Khan.
The licensing issue of the Bangladesh Post Office鈥檚 mobile financial service Nagad has been complicated since beginning of the MFS operation.
According to the regulations, an MFS company cannot exist on its own but has to be a subsidiary of another financial institution or government entity. BKash is a subsidiary of Brac Bank and Rocket of Dutch-Bangla Bank.
To get a full licence, the Bangladesh Post Office has to form a company to run Nagad as its subsidiary.
Despite extension for several times, Nagad could still not become a subsidiary of Bangladesh Post Office or any other financial institution.
Since Nagad cannot operate alone as an MFS, it took in principle license for opening a digital bank called Nagad Digital Bank under which it will work as a subsidiary to legalise its operation.
Tanvir Ahmed Mishuk is the managing director of both Third Wave Technologies and Nagad.
On August 20, Bangladesh Bank requested the foreign ministry to provide information of five foreign sponsor shareholders of Nagad Digital Bank PLC.
The five shareholder companies are the Blue Heaven Ventures LLC, Osiris Capital Partners LLC, Zen Fintech LLC, Finclusion Ventures Pte Ltd and Trupay Technologies LLC.
In a letter on Sunday, the central bank made the request to collect information regarding the companies through Bangladesh embassies in the United States and Singapore.
On June 3, the central bank approved a banking licence for Nagad Digital Bank PLC, the first full-fledged digital bank in Bangladesh, and a sister concern of mobile financial service provider Nagad, and listed it as a scheduled bank.
The notification clarified that this provision of the Bank Company Act, 1991 would not apply to Blue Heaven Ventures LLC, Orisis Capital Partners LLC, and Finclusion Ventures Pte Ltd.
On October 22, 2023, the Nagad Digital Bank and the Kori Digital received letters of intent from the Bangladesh Bank to launch full-fledged digital banks.
