The Bangladesh Bank (BB) has granted a digital bank licence to Nagad Digital Bank PLC, making it the first entity to do so.
As per the banking watchdog’s warning, Nagad Digital was classified by the BB today as a scheduled bank.
Tanvir A. Mishuk, the founder and CEO of Nagad Ltd., stated, “We have been advocating for a digital bank to transform Bangladesh into a smart economy through cashless transactions,” following his receipt of the license during a function held at the Bangladesh Bank headquarters in Dhaka.
After Nagad fulfilled the requirements outlined in the letter of intent (LoI) that was submitted to it in October of last year, the regulator’s board of directors granted it final permission on May 28.
Seven sponsors received 12.5 crore shares from Nagad Digital Bank. Three firms own more than ten percent of them: Finclusion Ventures Pte Ltd (Singapore), Blue Haven Ventures (USA), and Osiris Capital Partners (USA).
The remaining four shareholders are the sole local shareholder, Fintechtual Holdings Ltd., Farhan Karim Khan, Zen FinTech (USA), and Trupay Technologies.
Osiris Capital, Blue Haven, and Finclusion were authorized by the banking authority to possess more shares than the directors’ permitted maximum specified in the nation’s current banking rules in a separate announcement.
A person, organization, business, or member of the same family cannot directly or indirectly own more than 10% of a company under the current Bank Company Act.
But on March 27, the Finance Ministry expanded the exemption in accordance with a clause of the Bank Company Act 1991, granting Nagad authorization.
