PRI proposes inclusive system to unify digital payments, cut remittance costs

The Policy Research Institute of Bangladesh has proposed introducing an inclusive instant payment system to unify the country's fragmented digital payment ecosystem, identifying cross-border remittances as the initiative's most promising use case.

The proposal was presented at a workshop "Analysis of the Inclusive Instant Payment System in Bangladesh and Cross-Border Remittance as a Use Case" at the research institute's Banani office today (23 July).

The study was jointly presented by PRI Research Director Dr Bazlul Haque Khondker and Director Dr MA Razzaque.

The platform would integrate bank-to-bank, wallet-to-wallet and bank-to-wallet transfers, QR payments, remittances, merchant payments and government-to-person disbursements into a single framework aligned with Bangladesh's National Financial Inclusion Strategy and the Sustainable Development Goals.

Although Bangladesh's mobile financial service sector, led by bKash, Nagad and Rocket, has expanded into remittance services, salary disbursement and government payments, it remains largely closed-loop, preventing seamless fund transfers across different providers, according to study.

Previous interoperability initiatives, including the Business Finance for the Poor in Bangladesh programme implemented between 2017 and 2020 and the ICT Division's Binimoy platform, which was discontinued in 2024, failed to gain traction because participation was voluntary, giving dominant providers little commercial incentive to interoperate, shows the study.

Citing the Global Findex Database 2025, the research found that only 43% of adults in Bangladesh own a financial account, while just 34% make or receive digital payments.

It also highlighted a 20-percentage-point gender gap in digital financial access, one of the widest in South Asia.

The study identified cross-border remittances as the largest potential source of benefits from the proposed system.

Bangladesh received $30.3 billion in formal remittances in FY25, but formal inflows stagnated in FY23 despite record overseas employment, as many migrants continued to rely on informal hundi channels due to their lower costs and faster delivery.