Rickshaw pullers, cobblers to get personal Bangla QR codes from Nov: BB governor

He said the first phase involved implementing regulatory directives, with Bangla QR made mandatory for all from July 1. The second phase focused on testing the system's operational capacity to ensure it could handle large volumes of interconnected transactions.

The governor said the move required careful preparation as nearly 100 service providers were being brought onto the interconnected platform. While Mastercard's system could process 1,000 transactions per second, the National Payment Switch Bangladesh (NPSB) had been tested for a capacity of up to 300 transactions per second.

He said satisfactory progress in operational performance had been achieved within around one and a half to two months. The campaign to promote Bangla QR began on October 1, while charges for interoperable transactions between different service providers had been waived for transactions of any amount, including Tk 2,000, Tk 5,000, Tk 1 lakh and Tk 2 lakh.

Highlighting the growth of Bangla QR transactions, Mostakur said the average daily transaction volume stood at Tk 37 crore in the first week of June, rising to around Tk 180 crore in the final week of September-- an increase of more than fourfold.

However, he said the progress should not be considered the ultimate success of the initiative. The system would reach a reasonable level of adoption when daily transactions approached Tk 3,000 crore, he added.

The governor also highlighted the government's digital public infrastructure (DPI) initiative, which comprises three key components: digital identity, digital payments and data exchange.

He explained that a digital identity would provide an individual with a consistent identity from birth until death. A data exchange system would also reduce the need to submit physical documents repeatedly for services such as opening bank accounts, obtaining loans and completing official procedures, as relevant certificates and information could be verified through an identification number.