BB to launch live settlement system

Bangladesh Bank (BB) will introduce live settlement system on October 22, nearly two weeks behind the original schedule for launching the online fund transfer technology.

The central bank in April this year announced the implementation roadmap for Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) system, suggesting all banks to take necessary preparations to perform live transaction over the RTGS system from October 8.

BB, however, in a circular issued Sunday deferred the launching date for the RTGS, also known as BB-RTGS or "Go Live" on October 22.

"A critical system like RTGS needs multiple phases of testing, all of which have not been completed yet", BB said, pointing out that some participating banks completed their preparation while others were in progress.

Therefore, BB said, the timeline for completion of the System Integration Testing (SIT) had been extended from October 1 to October 15. Accordingly, the Go Live date had also been revised to October 22 from October 8.

The central bank asked all schedule banks to take necessary steps to prepare themselves for go live operation of BD-RTGS accordingly.

The RTGS is an advance technology that facilitates interbank electronic transfer of fund from one bank to another on a real time and gross basis.

The REGS helps boost business to business (B2B) transaction along with the other general transactions by enabling instant settlement of high value local currency transactions as well as government securities and foreign currency based transactions.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has provided financial support to implement this project financially.