Nagad poised to establish digital bank

Nagad, a popular mobile money carrier based in Bangladesh, has equipped itself to grow into a digital bank, which will make available all financial services on a single platform.

The company’s current outreach to Bangladesh’s every nook and corner for having a large customer base as well as 2,50,000 retail points has given it an extra advantage when it comes to offering digital banking services to people even in remote areas.

The world’s fastest-growing FinTech company has developed a digital banking ecosystem that will ensure new products and services that customers are now deprived of on an MFS platform on account of many limitations and legal binding.

So, Nagad can serve its customers soon after it secures the licence to launch a digital bank. The company has recently applied to the Bangladesh Bank to obtain a digital bank licence.

Once it moves into digital banking, Nagad, the country’s top MFS carrier in terms of registered customers, will just revolutionise the entire financial industry – from opening a bank account to availing various loan products to parking money to paying bills to money transfer to accessing insurance and investment products, all will be available on its digital platform. No one needs to go to a bank branch, rather they will instantly make all transactions on their smartphones at minimal costs.

The company, known as a financial market disruptor, has many products and services lined up to further reshape the dynamic of digital finance in Bangladesh.

What will be a game-changing move is its launch of a collateral-free loan for small informal sector businesses at a single-digit interest rate. Currently, this section of people neither have trade licences nor access to credit in the traditional banking system. In this situation, they are having to take loans from local moneylenders at as high as 40 percent interest rate per day. Nagad will also reach out to customers with a savings option.

Tanvir A Mishuk, founder and managing director of Nagad Limited, said, “It is all set. We are well-equipped with the necessary products and services to establish a digital bank.”

If Nagad gets a digital bank licence, it will be able to begin serving people soon, he also said.

“To assess a customer’s creditworthiness, we have developed an AI-based credit rating system that will analyse all transactions-related data available on public domains using one’s NID and mobile number. The system will determine if giving a loan to a particular individual is safe or not,” he added.