Google Pay has officially launched in Bangladesh, offering mobile-based, secure payment services through City Bank PLC.
Paying for things in Bangladesh just got a lot simpler. City Bank officially launched Google Wallet on Tuesday, teaming up with Mastercard and Visa to let people pay for things just by tapping their phones.
Starting now, City Bank customers can add their credit or debit cards to the app. From there, they can use Google Pay for everything—no more digging for cash or handing over a physical card. At the launch event in a Dhaka hotel, organizers called it a huge step toward building a truly digital Bangladesh.
Google Pay operates on encryption-based technology designed to protect users’ personal and financial information. Once linked, a smartphone essentially becomes a digital wallet.
At the event, Bangladesh Bank Governor Dr. Ahsan H. Mansur welcomed the service and called it a step toward financial inclusion.
“Even with progress, we remain behind in reaching full financial inclusion,” he said. “We still have a long way to go.”
He pointed to four major channels that are helping expand digital finance across the country—credit cards, mobile financial services, microcredit institutions, and agent banking.
Dr. Mansur also mentioned that digital banks would be introduced soon to support this ecosystem.
As other banks join the Google Pay platform, stakeholders expect its reach and impact to grow in the coming months.
