The Bangladesh Bank (BB) issued payment system operator (PSO) licence to Walletmix Limited on Wednesday to provide merchant aggregator services in the country, said a circular of the central bank.
The licensee has already been providing payment gateway services with no objection certificate since 2018 to merchandise products or services online as well as process credit cards, debit cards or other forms of payment.
A merchant aggregator, payment aggregator, or simply aggregator is a service provider that allows merchants to accept payments without having to set up a merchant account. The aggregators funnel and process multiple merchant transactions through a single account.
"Walletmix payment gateway service includes security measures that verify each credit card number and intercept potential criminal attempts before a transaction takes place," according to the company website.
Talking to The Financial Express, Walletmix CEO Humayun Kabir said this is third PSO licence in the country.
"With this service, the e-commerce markets and payments system will come to order," he added.
The central bank, under the Bangladesh Payment and Settlement Systems Regulations 2014, issues PSO licences to non-bank entities that want to provide payment and settlement services in the country.
The BB issued a guideline last year for trust fund management in payment and settlement services for mobile financial services (MFS), payment service providers (PSP), and payment system operators (PSO) to protect the interests of clients following a number of high profile e-commerce scams.
In the process of facilitating payment and settlement services, these entities hold money that does not belong to them, but belongs to their customers or payment participants.
