Islami Bank Bangladesh Limited (IBBL) has launched a month-long fintech campaign. Mohammed Monirul Moula, managing director and chief executive officer of the bank, inaugurated the "All of Your Banking Through Fintech" campaign as the chief guest in Dhaka Monday. IBBL additional managing directors Muhammad Qaisar Ali and Md Omar Faruk Khan addressed the function as special guests. Read: IBBL Chattogram North, South hold Shariah compliance webinar Md Mostafizur Rahman Siddiquee, deputy managing director, presided over the programme. AFM Kamaluddin, deputy managing director, delivered the welcome speech. Monirul Moula said: "IBBL has been working to attain the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in line with the initiatives of the government. We are contributing to the digital transformation of the country through the expansion of modern fintech services." Read Nagad bags Visa 'Excellence in Fintech' award

Global payments service provider Visa has conferred mobile financial services provider (MFS) Nagad with the "Excellence in Fintech Product Innovation 2022" award for its easily accessible payment solutions and for enabling users to transfer money from their mobile wallets to any Visa card. This was the first time Visa awarded the title to an MFS in Bangladesh. Rahel Ahmed, chief executive officer of Nagad, received the award at the "Visa Leadership Conclave-Digital Payments for Smart Bangladesh 2022" recently held at a city hotel. Read: Technical, madrasa students to get stipends through Nagad "We want to make people's lives easier and this Visa award will inspire us to come up with more such solutions," he added. "We are delighted to recognise Nagad's contribution through the 'Excellence in Fintech Product Innovation 2022' award," Soumya Basu, Visa country manager for Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan, said. Nagad and Visa jointly pioneered a solution a few months ago that allows consumers to use Nagad to transfer funds directly from their wallet to any bank account linked to a Visa card, he said. Read Nagad offers up to 30% cashback and discount on Eid shopping

One of the key challenges faced by the start-ups in Bangladesh is regarding the payment gateway. As an emerging market for tech start-ups and Fintech organizations, the lack of accessibility to a secured channel of the transaction is a concerning issue. In both securing funds and operating a multi-point transaction system, access to a secured globally accepted transaction model is an integral part to develop the financial aspect of any start-up. To this end, Visa Digital Payments brought forward exciting programs to assist the start-ups in their financial operations. What is Fintech? Fintech stands for Financial Technology. Simply put, it is the process of incorporating technology in the financial processes of organizations to digitize transactions. Initially, Fintech was limited to the back-end use of financial institutions to develop the infrastructure of the banking system. The core focus was to develop the service at the back end to offer efficiency to the client at the front end. However, with advancement in the field and tech becoming more and more accessible to people, Fintech took a front-end position as well. Now, Fintech is widely used in various banking processes and is directly available to the customer as credit cards, debit cards, or instant wire transfers even. Read Fintech MFS: Best Mobile Financial Services in Bangladesh The horizon of Fintech, however, isn’t limited to the banking sector alone. With more and more diversification, Fintech has seen prospects in the mobile banking sector, cryptocurrency, and stock exchange as well. Stocks have now become more accessible to people through app-based transactions which are all entailed by Fintech. Financial Scenario and Constraints Facing Start-ups In the present context of Bangladesh, start-ups and Fintech organizations require an omnichannel transaction support system for their businesses. Even though cash is still one of the primary bases of the transaction, there is a huge interest in digital payment scenarios as well. The claim is further backed up by the popularity of bKash, a mobile banking platform powered by Fintech under BRAC Bank. With over 45 million BDT worth of transactions per day and over 22% of all adults of Bangladesh being its user, the popularity of the platform is on the rise for a considerable time now. Read 20 Most Promising Education Start-Ups in Bangladesh This growth trajectory will only continue as more and more start-ups are promoting digital transactions on their platform. Start-ups like Pathao, Foodpanda, and Shohoz offer discounts and cashback offers in various digital payment methods. As more and more people get access to the internet, digital payment platform seems to be the future of monetary transactions. However, there is still a lack of innovation when it comes to developing the Fintech scenario in Bangladesh. With more than 1700 digital start-ups in Bangladesh, the digitization process is far from the optimum level and the few stories of Fintech integration cannot be considered as the mean value. There is still a lot to develop in the merchant ecosystem as well as client end facilities. As start-ups in Bangladesh are focusing on the digitization of their platforms, the issues pertaining to the ease of access of the payment channels as well as digitizing currencies remain a burning issue and unexplored opportunities for the start-ups. Read The SWAP story of Bangladesh's first reCommerce startup What does Visa’s Initiative mean for Startups? Visa is probably the largest singular body when it comes to digital transactions. They are not only the leader across all the countries of the world but also one of the most secure platforms and channel operators when it comes to online transactions. Visa recognizes Bangladesh as one of the top emerging markets for tech start-ups and Fintech solutions. However, the company also realizes the lack of ease of business as automation and innovation are still in the nascent stage when it comes to leveraging the full potential of digital payment scopes. To that end, Visa has designed a 12-part webinar for the start-ups and Fintech in Bangladesh to better communicate the service and innovation Visa offers. The entire webinar is divided into three parts – Visa Connect, Mentorship Series, and Thought Leadership series. Basically, Visa aims to introduce up-and-coming start-ups and Fintech with the cutting-edge technology offered by Visa. Read: Sofol App from iFarmer: A Revolution Towards the Agriculture Digitization The mentorship program will focus on Visa’s approach in alleviating the Fintech experience for the clients as well as develop processes in the merchant end as well all the while maintaining efficiency and security. The leadership thought series will see Visa work closely with the start-ups to innovate processes to better suit the market of Bangladesh and understand the best means of digitizing transactions. Visa is working in collaboration with Start-up Dhaka for the project. The country director of Visa for this region, Soumya Basu feels that this is an excellent opportunity for the start-ups to learn about digital transaction systems from a company that has pioneered the platform itself. He also feels that it will create new opportunities for businesses as they perfect their financial modelling and diversify their offering to the client base. The webinars will start on 17th June 2021. You can learn more about the webinars and the project here. Bottom Line Truth is that the start-ups in Bangladesh are lagging in the digital transaction landscape. Businesses aren’t able to utilize the existing digital transaction channels properly and neither are their new growth opportunities. To this end, the initiative taken by Visa to promote their services and incorporate them in the growth of start-ups and Fintech is certainly commendable. Read Shammi Quddus: A Talented Bangladeshi Woman in Google Global Fintech Industry.

Shammi Quddus, Google's product manager and co-founder of Bangladesh's first leadership organization- BYLC (Bangladesh Youth Leadership Center), grew up in Chittagong, Bangladesh. The mother of two has already received MBA and MPAID degrees from Stanford GSB and Harvard Kennedy School respectively. Shammi went to America to study with a scholarship and graduated in environmental engineering from MIT. She is currently living in Sunnyvale, California with her husband and children. Her reputation precedes her astonishing contributions to the fintech industry. Ignoring the patriarchal system, she has firmly established her position as a woman in the international technology sector. Let's find out the success story of this talented woman. Gaining the opportunity to study at MIT MIT has opened the door of possibilities in front of Shammi Quddus. Generally, it is very difficult for any girl from a middle-class family in Bangladesh to go abroad to study. Even then, Shammi was able to overcome all obstacles due to the positive attitude of her parents who were teachers. Going beyond the so-called rules, she mastered martial arts despite being a South Asian girl. She holds black belts in Karate and Taekwondo. By the way, she moved to the United States with a scholarship. Traveled to different big cities. After all, instead of going for a conventional profession, she chooses a profession with her own choice. Despite the contemporaneous adversity towards women, she was able to do so because of her family's support and self-confidence, and will-force. In high school, she passed the SAT One and Two exams. She then applied to 14 American universities for scholarships. Shammi received scholarships from most of these universities. And she immediately chose MIT, the university of her dreams. Read: The World's 10 Self-made Youngest Billionaires in 2021 Joining in end-user engagement After doing a BSc in Environmental Engineering from MIT, Shammi first started working as an engineer in the multinational infrastructural engineering firm ECOM. Here she had to engage in theoretical activities like data analysis. But Shammi's desire was to involve himself in some work that directly affects people's lives. As a result, she started working with the Bangladesh team of Waterhealth International in 2011. At that time the team was working on drinking water management in Chittagong. She then worked with Jeeon, a start-up social organization in the health and technology sector in Bangladesh. Through her, Jeeon's first telemedicine product entered Bangladesh. At this time, the Projotno mobile telemedicine service implemented by her has won the USAID M4D Award as the most innovative mobile app service of the year in South Asia. Emerging as an entrepreneur In early 2008, Shammi Quddus, along with her husband Ejaz Ahmed, formed the Young Leadership-Based Program (BYLC) with an aim of exchanging views of English, Bengali, and Arabic medium students and promoting active citizenship. During this time she won a highly competitive collegiate social innovation grant from MIT called the Davis Projects for Peace, which provided initial funding for BYLC. She developed partnerships and a curriculum. She ensured the participation of students in the program, 93% of whom have completed graduation. As a result, the program became the country's top leadership institute. Based on this, Shammi has had to play the necessary role in setting up many start-ups by working in various multinational consultancy firms. She has been involved in a variety of activities, including negotiating with marginal consumers, marketing campaigns, dealing with landowners, bringing in electricity approvals, and arranging recruitments. Read: Top 10 Co-working Spaces in Dhaka Journey of Shammi Quddus as a Google employee Shammi feels a deep urge to work in the development sector. So she did MBA to gain knowledge about leadership and economic planning. On the other hand, the MPA ended up acquiring skills in policymaking in various public and private sectors. Then came the call from Google Inc. At first, she worked for a year and a half as Customer Insights Manager. Then join as the product manager of the payment platform team. It is the responsibility of this team to complete all types of Google monetization processes. This means that all types of financial transactions of customers with Google take place through them. They have to ensure the use of Google products like YouTube, Maps, Ads, Play Store, AdSense, etc. all over the world. As a product manager, Shammi has to advise programmers on designing technical implementations for each product by understanding user needs, technical feasibility, regulatory restrictions, revenue impact, Google's goals. Read: Taxation of Bangladeshi Freelancers in 2021 The pioneer of women leadership in the 21st century Shammi thinks that in any organization, it is necessary to maintain equality of men and women in high positions as well as to recruit an equal number of men and women at the primary level. Gender discrimination will be eliminated if men and women are treated equally at all levels, not just in the workplace. As in Bangladesh, women do not get the opportunity to play sports, so they suffer from an inferiority complex. But Shammi was very interested in martial arts and took Karate training in Chittagong at the age of 16 and got a black belt. She even became a champion at the divisional and national levels. As well as studying, she became more confident as a result of such outdoor activities. While at MIT, she took Taekwondo training and won a black belt in four years. Besides career, Shammi also gives equal importance to family life. According to Shammi, the decisions have to be made depending on the situation. Sometimes after giving 80 percent, you will get 20 percent. Giving 20% ​​again will give 80% profit. And it results to keep a balance in life. Read: Top 10 Free Online Digital Marketing Courses in 2021 The challenges on the way to her success Shammi's biggest challenge was getting a full free scholarship to MIT. And even after these 15 years, she still remembers the efforts to get that scholarship. The joy of finally getting MIT's positive emails seen in the inbox never fades. Then it was very difficult for Shammi to study in two completely different places like Harvard and Stanford in different environments. Because maintaining contact with her husband and children and continuing her studies was like crossing the Himalayas for her. Ejaz Ahmed, the founder of BYLC, was by her side at that time. Final Word Shammi Quddus now dreams of creating new products in the financial technology industry in the future. However, more participation of Bangladeshi women is needed in this regard. Everyone should come forward to create technology-based services as much as possible from their place. Creativity can be born if a good work environment is created. And only then will welfare be achieved for the greater good. Read Legendary Women in Bangladesh with Pioneering Contribution in Diverse Fields

British High Commissioner in Bangladesh Robert Chatterton Dickson paid a courtesy visit to Dhaka Chamber of Commerce & Industry (DCCI) to discuss various bilateral issues relating to trade and commerce.

The emphasis on inclusiveness in finance means that not only are the days gone when you had to go to the bank for certain transactions like paying bills, withdrawals, etc. The advent of digital innovations in the field heralded a new era of paperless money transactions in the world during the Nineties. Appearing on the scene as the handmaiden of Fintech (Financial Technology) is the innovative approach to managing money called Mobile Financial Services (MFS).