Bangladesh Bank cuts DGePay off from NPSB over India server access

Bangladesh Bank has disconnected online payment gateway DGePay from the National Payment Switch Bangladesh (NPSB) over several security concerns, including access to its servers from India.

The central bank took the measure on 29 October following the identification of several security vulnerabilities during a verification process.

Bangladesh Bank Executive Director and spokesperson Arif Hossain Khan confirmed the development to the media, saying the decision was taken after security flaws were identified.

DGePay, however, claimed that the decision was made without prior discussion.

As a result, the company's transactions through NPSB have been suspended, although its other services remain operational.

Arif Hossain Khan said cybersecurity and the protection of citizens' data privacy were the central bank's priorities.

He said allegations that an institution was being operated from outside Bangladesh were treated as a potential threat to data privacy and security.

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The central bank would take necessary action over the allegations against the company, he added.

He said DGePay had been disconnected from NPSB as an interim measure, as a full investigation would take time.

DGePay Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Rashed Mahmud said the disagreement with the central bank mainly concerned the company's staffing arrangements and its developers based in India.

He said the company did not have a separate employee for the position of database administrator, with an employee holding another responsibility also handling the role. Bangladesh Bank had objected to this arrangement and wanted a separate employee for each position, he added.

Regarding access to the servers from India, Rashed said DGePay's system had been developed by a research and development team based in India. Indian developers had been granted access to the system only for designated development work, he said.

According to Rashed, Bangladesh Bank raised objections after learning that the developers were Indian and questioned why the technology development work was not being conducted in Bangladesh.

He also claimed that many companies operating in Bangladesh had systems or data hosted in India and other countries.