Banglalink has stepped into digital payments with a new service called Mukto Pay, and says a digital bank will follow within six months. The operator unveiled the platform at a press conference in Dhaka on November 3, timed with the first board meeting its parent company VEON has ever held in Bangladesh.
The launch is the clearest sign yet that the country’s third-largest mobile operator wants to be judged as a digital services company rather than a network that sells minutes and data bundles.
What Mukto Pay does, and what comes next
Mukto Pay is positioned as a payment service provider. It lets people send and receive money, pay utility bills and recharge their phones, and it is open to customers of every mobile operator, not only Banglalink’s own subscribers. The company did not disclose fees or transaction limits at the launch, so how competitive it will be on price is not yet clear.
The bigger promise is the digital bank. Banglalink chief executive Johan Buse said the plan is to offer instant transfers, low-cost financial services and small loans through a mobile phone. He pointed out that roughly half of Bangladesh’s population still has no bank account. VEON chief executive Kaan Terzioğlu said the bank would target people with limited access to banking and would not try to compete with traditional lenders for large corporate or government business. He also pitched digital savings as a safer option than keeping cash at home or buying gold.
That bank is a plan, not a product. No launch date beyond the six-month window was given, and the service will need to clear the usual regulatory steps before anyone can open an account.
Mukto Pay sits alongside a growing list of non-telecom ventures. Banglalink runs Toffee, an entertainment platform that the company says has about seven million monthly users. It has launched RYZE, an AI-driven lifestyle brand aimed at young people, and Techvan, which focuses on cheaper smartphones. It also says it is the first operator in South Asia to offer a direct-to-cell service powered by Starlink satellites, extending coverage to places towers do not reach.
VEON used the visit to remind officials of its stake in the country. By the company’s own count, it has invested $2.5 billion in Bangladesh, paid about $4 billion in taxes, created around 10,000 jobs and serves roughly 40 million customers. Executives said a recent investor roadshow in New York was part of an effort to bring in about $1 billion of additional investment.
Two familiar issues also came up. The government would like Banglalink to list on the stock market, but VEON said it will wait for the right moment. And both Buse and Terzioğlu repeated the industry’s call for cheaper spectrum, days before the operators’ current frequency licences come up for renewal.
What it means here
Bangladesh’s digital money market has long been dominated by bKash and Nagad, with bank-backed services such as Rocket further behind. A telecom-backed payment app that works across all networks adds a new kind of competitor, one that can reach tens of millions of people through SIM cards and an existing retail network.
For users, more competition could mean lower charges and better service, but only if Mukto Pay prices aggressively and proves reliable. Those details have not been published yet. The digital bank, if it arrives on time, would be a more meaningful test: small loans and savings for people outside the banking system are exactly the gap financial inclusion policy has been trying to close. Whether Banglalink can turn a payments app into a trusted financial brand will matter more than the launch itself.
