Four firms including bKash, Robi and Banglalink get approval to launch digital banks

Bangladesh Bank has given preliminary approval to four entities, including bKash, Robi and Banglalink, to establish digital banks to introduce a new form of banking service in the country.

As preliminary approval, the regulator will soon issue Letters of Intent (LoI) to these entities. The banks will be able to commence full commercial operations only after successfully completing the subsequent legal and technical steps.

The decision was taken at a meeting of the Bangladesh Bank Board of Directors on Thursday, September 24. The meeting was chaired by Bangladesh Bank Governor Mostakur Rahman. Bangladesh Bank spokesperson Arif Hossain Khan confirmed the matter to Dhaka Post.

The four entities that received preliminary approval are Digital Banking of Bhutan, bKash Digital Bank, Nova Digital Bank and Boost Digital Bank.

Among those receiving preliminary approval, the entrepreneur behind Digital Banking of Bhutan is Bhutan's DK Bank. The main shareholders of the MFS institution bKash are behind bKash Digital Bank. As a joint venture, Banglalink's parent company 'Veon' and the country's leading industrial group 'Square Group' are behind Nova Digital Bank. And mobile operator Robi Axiata's parent company 'Axiata Limited' is the entrepreneur behind Boost Digital Bank.

Alongside this, the board has decided to issue a fresh Letter of Intent (LoI) to ACI's 'Kori Digital Bank', which had received preliminary approval earlier, to fulfil conditions.

Under the new conditions, a digital bank must start operations with Tk 300 crore in paid-up capital. In other words, the entrepreneur shareholders must deposit the full Tk 300 crore as paid-up capital. During the Awami League government, the paid-up capital requirement for digital banks was Tk 125 crore.

Additionally, digital banks will not be given a final licence directly. They will first have to conduct banking operations on a trial basis for six months. If the bank's operations are satisfactory and successful during this period, a final licence will be given at the next stage. However, if the trial operations fail to meet the stipulated conditions, the final licence may not be given.

Earlier, when applications for digital bank licences were invited during the interim government, a total of 13 applications were submitted by initiatives of various leading industrial groups, microfinance institutions, mobile operators and mobile financial services (MFS) institutions.

Bangladesh Bank accepted these applications from September 1 to November 2, 2025. At that time, Bangladesh Bank's governor was Ahsan H Mansur. However, due to various administrative complexities, a final decision on the applications could not be taken then.

Later, after the new government took office, Ahsan H Mansur was removed and Mostakur Rahman was appointed governor. After taking office, without inviting fresh applications, the central bank's Board of Directors took the policy decision to give preliminary approval to these four entities after scrutiny of the previously submitted applications.