The Bangladesh Bank has announced that no new banknotes will be supplied to the market ahead of Eid al-Fitr this year.
According to a notice issued by the central bank on Sunday (March 8), customers will not be able to exchange old notes for newly printed ones through banks as usually practiced before Eid.
Meanwhile, card-based transactions in the country have increased rapidly over the past five years, according to the latest report published by Bangladesh Bank.
It shows that transactions through debit, credit and prepaid cards have grown by nearly two and a half times, or about 143 per cent, during the period. In January 2021, card transactions totaled Tk 20,625 crore, which rose significantly to Tk 50,044 crore by December 2025.
According to the report, 61 banks and one non-bank financial institution (NBFI) are currently providing card services in the country. Among them, 55 banks offer debit card services.
Data from Bangladesh Bank also indicates that by the end of January 2021, the number of debit, credit and prepaid cards in circulation in the country exceeded 24 million.
Five years later, by December 2025, the total number of cards increased to 51.8 million, marking a growth of around 115 per cent during this period.
