Bangladesh Bank (BB) has approved 8 institutions to form digital banks, for the first such bank in the country.

The central bank’s board of directors gave this approval in a meeting held on Sunday. Among the 8 institutions, Nagad Digital Bank and Kori Digital Bank got approval for the formation of full-fledged digital banks.

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The board has decided to allow three institutions to open digital banking wings. The remaining three institutions will get full digital bank permission, but not right now. After reviewing the services of the two institutions that have been granted permission, Nagad and Kori, the three may or may not get permission.

The BB spokesperson Md Mazbaul Haque told UNB that the names of 9 institutions were presented to the board of directors. Among the 9 institutions, 8 were considered by the Board, while one was not as it was associated with an insurance company.

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He said that it has been decided to give a full bank to Naqd Digital Bank and Kori Digital Bank.

Apart from this, the meeting has decided to approve 10 banks forming the digital wing of ‘Digiten Digital Bank’, Bkash Digital Bank, and Bank Asia's Digital Bank, he said.

Mezbaul Haque said that apart from this, the board has decided to give full digital banks to three more banks after reviewing the services of 6 months of launching two full digital banks (Nagad and Kori).

Waiting in the wings with this provisional approval will be Smart Digital Bank, North East Digital Bank, and Japan-Bangla Digital Bank.