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Visa, a leading global digital payments network, launched Bangladesh's first contactless credit and debit cards on Thursday and also announced plans to provide interoperable QR-based payment solution.
The new Visa products were unveiled at a press meet at a city hotel, marking the 30th year of Visa's operation in the country.
Visa Group Country Manager for India & South Asia TR Ramachandran said Visa's new products would introduce the best of technology and mass-market solution that would help drive digital adoption across the country in years to come.
The Visa contactless card, a payment solution based on EMV chip technology offering more security, will be commercially launched soon by at least 20 partner banks, he said.
Cardholders just need to wave their cards against the contactless reader and the payment will be completed instantly because there is no need to sign in or enter PIN unlike in the case of existing cards, he added.
However, the new Visa product hasn't been approved by the central bank as yet, he said, adding: "We hope that the approval will come shortly as at least seven of the partner banks of Visa have already applied for the approval."
The Visa group country manager also announced the plan to launch the first ever EMV-based interoperable QR payment solution in Bangladesh.
In response to a question, Ramachandran said there is a market of US$ 170 billion individual consumption expenditure in the country, of which only $7.0 billion or $8.0 billion worth of payments are made digitally.
Citing Bangladesh Bank's data, he said there are a total of 12.70 million credit and debit cards in Bangladesh while only 8.0 per cent of the bank account holders use such cards.
Citing a recent study, he said Dhaka, with a population of over 15.80 million, could alone gain US$1.5 billion annual net benefits by transitioning into a digital economy.
According to the Visa Consumer Payment Attitudes Study 2017, some 65 per cent respondents in Bangladesh were more likely to embrace new forms of payments while 74 per cent find ease of transition driving the digital adoption, Visa officials said.