DHAKA, July 11, 2019 (BSS) – Dutch Queen Maxima today stressed the need for an innovation office to be set up at the central bank level to take care of financial innovation issues.
The Netherlands Queen spoke of the innovation office when she visited the Bangladesh Bank and met Governor Fazle Kabir, said a central bank press release.
During the meeting, the Dutch Queen, who is also the UN Secretary-General’s Special Advocate for Inclusive Finance for Development (UNSGSA), focused on access to finance and importance of women’s access to digital financial services.
Maxima also emphasized the importance of introducing a national identity system including e-KYC and linking it to the digital payment platforms.
She expressed her interest in Bangladesh’s future strategies on gender gap reduction, achieving the goal of universal financial access reaping the benefit of innovation in financial sector through Fintech.
The Queen expressed her satisfaction over the recent progress made by Bangladesh and assured necessary cooperation in future.
Central Bank Governor Fazle Kabir briefed the Queen on the current status of financial inclusion and woman empowerment in Bangladesh.
He also informed the Dutch Queen of the initiatives taken by Bangladesh Bank to reach the underserved through Mobile Financial Services, Agent Banking, and SME Loans.
Kabir mentioned that Bangladesh Bank has been working to enable the mobile financial services platform interoperable.
The Governor further informed the Queen that the formulation of the country’s first ever National Financial Inclusion Strategy (NFIS) is at the final stage.