Int’l trade to be more dynamic

Bangladesh Bank is set to upgrade the Bangladesh Automated Clearing House (BACH) in a bid to help businesspeople settle their local export- and import-related transactions in a day instead of existing 7-10 days.

The upgraded version, which will be called BACH II, is scheduled to go live on May 3. Senior bankers welcomed the move, saying BACH II will make international trade more dynamic. There are many instances of the bank-customer relationship deteriorating because the banks could not disburse the exporters’ fund promptly due to the existing manual system, said Syed Mahbubur Rahman, managing director of Dhaka Bank.

“Such problems will be solved when the central bank will introduce the BACH II,” said Rahman, also the chairman of the Association of Bankers, Bangladesh. Transparency will be ensured in the banking sector when the BACH II will become operational, stated Md Arfan Ali, managing director of Bank Asia.

“The economic system will get a momentum,” he said. The inter-bank on-line banking machine will additionally get a enhance as transaction will be settled on the day. MA Halim Chowdhury, managing director of Pubali Bank, echoed the same.

Transactions in five overseas countries’ currencies — the US dollar, pound sterling, Japanese yen, Canadian dollar and euro — will be settled by means of using the new elements of the BACH II. Introduced in November 2010, BACH was once the first ever digital clearing residence of Bangladesh. It has two components — the Automated Cheque Processing System and the Electronic Funds Transfer.

Both the systems operate in batch processing mode, meaning transactions obtained from banks at some point of the day are processed at a pre-fixed time and settled thru a single multilateral netting parent on every man or woman bank’s respective books maintained with the BB. Under BACH II, clients will additionally be in a position to settle their inter-bank on line transactions in a day.

The BACH approves purchasers to settle their inter-bank or cross cheques in local currency inside 24 hours.

For overseas cheques, it takes 7-10 days. But the BACH II will clear it in just a day.