Bangladesh Bank Governor Ahsan H Mansur said on Monday (November 24) that all banks, mobile financial service providers, insurance firms, financial institutions, and microcredit organizations will be connected to a single interoperable transaction system within the next year and a half, a move he said will dramatically reduce the country’s reliance on cash.

He outlined the plan while speaking as the chief guest at an event in Dhaka titled “Instant Payment in Bangladesh: Unveiling Inclusion Opportunities.” The program, jointly organized by Bangladesh Bank and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, announced details of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to develop an interoperable instant payment system, or IIPS. The platform will run on Mojaloop, an open-source digital financial services software supported by the Gates Foundation.

Mansur said the shift to digital transactions is essential for transparency. He noted that the system is expected to increase revenue collection and bring microfinance institutions and all other providers under a unified channel. He added that Bangladesh Bank will soon issue formal guidance to support the transition.

Bangladesh introduced IIPS under the National Payment Switch Bangladesh (NPSB) on November 1, but most financial institutions, including mobile money giant bKash, have not yet adopted the service. Mansur said many firms have yet to join despite the system’s launch, prompting the central bank to move ahead with the new platform backed by the Gates Foundation. The bank aims to fully operationalize it by July 2027.

He said he expects all providers to join once the new system is in place, adding that the platform will make cashless transactions possible across all services. “We need to build our entire transaction system as cashless,” he said.

The event was chaired by Bangladesh Bank Deputy Governor Md Zakir Hossain Chowdhury. Speakers included Mohammad Muslim Chowdhury, chairman of state-owned Sonali Bank PLC; Syed Mahbubur Rahman, managing director of Mutual Trust Bank; Michael Wiegand, director of Inclusive Financial Systems at the Gates Foundation; Snigdha Ali, the foundation’s Bangladesh country lead; and Md Sharafat Ullah Khan, director of the central bank’s Payment Systems Department.