BB withdraws fees, offers incentives to boost Bangla QR transactions

The Bangladesh Bank (BB) has offered financial incentives for transactions using the Bangla QR code system, and also withdrawn interchange fees in a bid to boost its use by merchants and consumers.

The new directives will come into effect on 1 October, said a circular issued by the central bank on Monday.

Bangla QR allows end consumers to use a single QR code for making online payments through different financial and banking platforms. Consumers usually use different QR codes for making payments through different platforms like Nagad, bKash and digital platforms of commercial banks.

Under the new directive, acquiring institutions, like Nagad and bKash, will not receive any fee or service charge from issuing institutions, like retailers and retail merchants, for Bangla QR code-based transactions.

In the previous order, retail merchants or consumers had to pay 1% of the transaction value.

The new order also states that acquiring institutions will receive 0.10% of the transaction value, while issuing institutions will receive 0.20%, on a monthly basis. Each transaction can be worth up to Tk2,000.

But the merchants cannot divide a transaction into multiple pieces to reap additional benefits, the central bank has warned.