Connecting Communities into digital net

Md. Monzur Mofiz 
Managing Director 
The Premier Bank PLC.

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The Premier Bank PLC is addressing challenges like limited rural internet, low smartphone penetration, and settlement delays by developing offline features, optimising apps for low-end devices, and working with the central bank to enable 24/7 real-time settlements.

Bangla QR plays a vital role in expanding financial inclusion in Bangladesh. By adopting this unified standard regulated by Bangladesh Bank, The Premier Bank PLC is helping resolve payment fragmentation across separate apps. This infrastructure simplifies micro-transactions at the grassroots level, supporting the transition to a cashless society.

The Daily Star (TDS): How are banks, MFS providers and fintech companies collaborating to ensure seamless, cross-platform transactions for the end consumer?

Md. Monzur Mofiz (MMM): The attractive feature of Bangla QR lies in its interoperability. Banks, MFS providers and fintech are breaking down traditional barriers by connecting to the National Payment Switch Bangladesh (NPSB). The Premier Bank PLC is moving away from proprietary merchant networks to a shared ecosystem where a customer using an MFS wallet can seamlessly scan and pay a merchant banked by a traditional retail bank. This collaborative approach focuses on expanding the overall digital money.

TDS: What strategies are being deployed to simplify the merchant onboarding process for street vendors and neighborhood grocers and how does adopting Bangla QR help formalize their businesses?

MMM: To bring street vendors and neighborhood grocers into the digital net, The Premier Bank PLC is simplifying the Know Your Customer (KYC) hurdles through e-KYC and Simplified Merchant Accounts. By replacing the rigid requirement of a traditional Trade License with basic national identity (NID) verification and utility bills, The Premier Bank PLC is lowering the barrier to entry.

TDS: From an industry standpoint, what further policy support, tax incentives, or infrastructure developments are needed to accelerate the countrywide rollout?

MMM: To accelerate the nationwide rollout, the industry requires targeted fiscal and regulatory catalysts. These include tax breaks or VAT rebates to lower digital transaction costs, government subsidies for rural QR deployment, and a balanced merchant discount rate (MDR) framework that protects low-margin micro-vendors while sustaining technology providers.

TDS: How is your organisation aligning its digital product roadmap and corporate strategy to champion Bangla QR, and what specific milestones do you hope to achieve in support of this national agenda?

MMM: The Premier Bank PLC is fully aligned with the central bank’s “Cashless Bangladesh” vision. The bank has re-engineered its digital product roadmap to place Bangla QR at the center of its retail acquisition strategy.

• Milestone 1: Onboard over 10,000 micro-merchants within the next 12 months.

• Milestone 2: Achieve a 200% year-on-year growth in QR-based transaction volumes.