Now ITCL has partnered with mobile payments solutions provider Luup to mobile enable all services and establish the largest Mobile Payments Hub in Bangladesh. Luup has been building a leading gateway for mobile payments in the Middle East and Asia Pacific1 steadily adding important markets, including India as announced last month.

Called Q-Cash Mobile, the service in Bangladesh will give immediate convenience to banked customers and introduce financial services for the large unbanked population, all via their readily available mobile devices. Q-Cash Mobile services are to include complete mobile banking facilities, bill payments, airtime top-up, ticketing, domestic person-to-person transfers and even integration to international remittance services for seamless usability. The service is to be extended in the future to include government disbursements, merchant payments, corporate payroll and cashless delivery.

ITCL deploys payment infrastructure, services and technology to banks, governments, financial and non-financial Institutions. It is also rolling-out a Postal Cash Card solution across over 10,000 branches of the Bangladesh Post Office, thus operating a vital payments hub with reach into rural areas.

"Adding a mobile layer across all our partnerships and services with Luup's leading mobile payments platform really creates something unique that puts Bangladesh at the forefront of mobile services," said Dr. Kazi Saifuddin Munir, MD & CEO of ITCL. "Not only that, the new service via Luup also promotes financial inclusion for all the unbanked in Bangladesh in addition to empowering women in rural areas. They will be able to easily manage their money as we will mobile enable the Postal Cash Cards they use instead of accounts."

Saqib Iqbal, Regional Director Asia Pacific, at Luup, explained: "Luup has been building a leading gateway for mobile payments in the Middle East and Asia Pacific. This new customer win will provide our gateway partners in the rremittance sending countries, such as the GCC, with a readily available cash-out distribution and bank network across Bangladesh, thus expanding their own business reach."

Many Bangladeshi migrants are working in other countries, especially the GCC, which can hosts more than 3.5m Bangladeshi expatriates. Thus the new hub will also offer a convenient solution for receiving and distributing remittances to Bangladesh. The sheer volume of money access points provides a cost effective cash-out network for inbound remittances. Many of these transfers will have been made from money credited via payroll payments directly onto the mobile phone of migrant workers - thus providing them with seamless, cost effective payments corridors.

Saqib Iqbal concluded: "We recently announced a substantial tie-in across India and now penetrate Bangladesh too. With this, we cover the most important remittance corridors in the region. Luup's business strategy is working and delivering success."