Bangladesh Bank successfully went live with its new Real-Time Gross Settlement system. In a Go Live ceremony held in October, the Honourable Governor, Dr Atiur Rahman and delegates from RTGS participants and SWIFT came together to celebrate this milestone.
On its way to implementing Real-Time Gross Settlements (RTGS) in Bangladesh, Bangladesh Bank decided to use the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) as an alternative channel to the Virtual Private Network (VPN) connectivity in the first phase of RTGS operations. At the ceremony for commencement of operation, Dr Rahman emphasised the presence and importance of SWIFT in front of the banking community “The new system is open to both VPN and SWIFT connectivity, and ISO20022, the next generation financial messaging standard of which SWIFT is the registration authority, has been chosen as the message format. At Bangladesh Bank, we recognise the positive linkage between technology and sustainable growth and we believe the new RTGS will bring the conditions of growth for the Bangladesh banking industry”.
One of the top banks who use SWIFT as the channel for RTGS is Citibank. Rashed Maqsood, Managing Director & Citi Country Officer , Citibank, N.A., Bangladesh said “At the ceremony we were able to observe seamless Citibank message flows, for the first time in the country truly depicting the real time gross settlement over the SWIFT channel. This is a great achievement that will ensure irrevocability and safety of payments to Bangladesh’s financial community, enabling Citibank to clear and settle critical high value payments for our customers in a highly secure and reliable manner”
Eddie Haddad, Managing Director, Asia Pacific at SWIFT adds “SWIFT worked closely with Bangladesh Bank to help them implement their new RTGS. A number of banks in Bangladesh have chosen to reuse their existing SWIFT infrastructure for domestic transactions on this new system, which will enable them to keep the same level of resiliency and security that SWIFT offers for cross-border transactions at a minimum cost”.
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