Banking to go ‘E’

November 09, 2009: Bhutan is much shy in adopting democracy, did it very late but its modest approach to IT has turn it an IT savvy nation. Most things are turning to go by internet, the race is fast.

The march continues with opening of the IT Park. Projects are on to bring governance under e-governance. Of late, banking sector comes with its plan to run the business through internet superhighway. That’s the way Bhutan entry into E-business starts.

Banking in Bhutan will be more paperless by next year as with Royal Monetary Authority (RMA) making effort for the introduction of the electronic fund transfer (EFT) services.

As usual, World Bank comes to the rescue. The RMA project is being funded by this American bank. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) supplements with technical assistance — providing the software, the necessary expertise, and the training of EFT manuals that will be customized and developed to be implemented in Bhutan.

RMA hopes embracing rapidly evolving technologies and taking initiative to enhance delivery channels will reap significant gains for both businesses and consumers. The service will help customers not only for electronic transfer of funds among banks and their branch offices but also among different banks.

The national electronic fund transfer (NEFT) system will facilitate money transfer within the country. The bulk electronic fund transfer for debit transactions will help account holder to authorize an institution (an EFT user) to recover an amount by raising debit to his account. The facility can also be used for credit transactions.