Page 24 - ITU-T Focus Group Digital Financial Services – Interoperability

ITU-T Focus Group Digital Financial Services
Interoperability

• Form an effective link between individual market players and the higher levels of the NPC.

Working groups meet on an “as needed basis”. For example, they may meet weekly during the course of a
specific implementation, and less frequently thereafter.

Secretariat

The secretariat is the “engine” of the NPC. It should consist of a highly efficient unit of staffs (typically, the
payment system oversight and/or payments policy unit of the Central Bank) with capacity to coordinate,
organize, supervise and follow-up on technical discussions. The Secretariat is generally responsible for the
preparatory work for the meetings of the various bodies of the NPC. In particular, it coordinates and facilitates
the work of the thematic working groups, prepares and organizes consultation exercises, drafts and circulates
information reports, prepares agendas, takes minutes of meetings, checks work progress, and supports
implementation efforts.

5.3 Case studies

Bangladesh

The National Payment Systems Council (NPSC) of Bangladesh, created in 2007, is made-up of representatives
from a selected number of commercial banks and from the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Commerce, the
Comptroller General of Accounts, the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission, and is chaired
by the Deputy Governor in charge of the Department of Currency Management and Payment Systems of the
Bangladesh Bank.

The NPSC is the central vehicle for formulating strategy, disseminating information on policy and good practices,
and promoting technological development in the payments system. It is also the vehicle for mobilizing resources
– human, financial, and physical – necessary for payments development. The NPSC defines the long-term
strategy and identifies the development priorities.

The NPSC is assisted by four working groups: strategy, law and regulation, remittances, and ACH. Each of
these is composed of commercial bank staff and is headed by a senior Bangladesh Bank officer. The Payments
Systems Division of Bangladesh Bank provides support services to these groups.

The first strategic directions adopted in 2007 by the NPSC were as follows:

• Implement Bangladesh ACH
• Establish the required legal and regulatory framework

• Promote and encourage e-payments, use of shared ATMs, POS terminals, mobile payments, etc.
• Establish the central bank’s payment system oversight function
• Encourage initiatives for the establishment of payment systems by the private sector

• Encourage on-line banking, adopt a core banking solution and improve the General Ledger and other
related departments/offices at the Bangladesh Bank

• Implement Bangladesh real-time gross settlement (RTGS) system.

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