Walletmix 5th firm to get PSO licence

Walletmix – an online payment gateway firm – has become the fifth company to get a Payment System Operator (PSO) licence from the Bangladesh Bank.

The central bank’s Payment Systems Department issued a circular in this regard on Wednesday, certifying the company as a merchant aggregator service.

With the inclusion of Walletmix, the number of PSOs in Bangladesh has reached five, according to the regulator’s web portal. The four other such firms are – IT Consultants Ltd, SSLCommerz, Shurjo Mukhi and Portonics Ltd.

Aside from providing PSO services, Walletmix also accepts, verifies, and processes a variety of transaction instruments on behalf of online businesses. It connects an online store’s shopping cart with payment modules at payment processor and/or bank end via a secure payment page, form, or payment API.

According to “Bangladesh Payment and Settlement Systems Regulation-2014” the Payment Systems Department issues license in two broad criteria – Payment Service Provider (PSP) and Payment System Operator (PSO).

Payment Systems Department (PSD) issues PSO license to a company that operates a settlement system for payment activities between or among participants, of which the principal participant must be a scheduled bank or financial institution – such as a payment gateway.

PSD gives PSP license to a company that facilitates payments or payment processes directly to customers, and settle their transactions through a scheduled bank or financial institution – for example E-wallet and Mobile Wallet.

There are five PSP services in Bangladesh – iPay Systems, D Money Bangladesh, Recursion FinTech, Green & Red Technologies and Progoti Systems Ltd.