Bangladesh’s financial technology sector must move beyond digital adoption towards building reliable infrastructure, strengthening customer trust and expanding financial inclusion, industry leaders said at the sixth Bangladesh Fintech Summit in Dhaka on Saturday.
The day-long event, titled ‘Mastercard Presents 6th Bangladesh Fintech Summit’, was held at Radisson Blu Water Garden Hotel on 10 October, bringing together banking and fintech leaders, corporate executives, investors, regulators, technology experts, startup founders and academics from Bangladesh and abroad, the organisers said in a press release.
Powered by Dhaka Bank and held in association with Upay, the summit was initiated by Bangladesh Fintech Forum and organised by Bangladesh Brand Forum.
Discussions focused on how financial institutions could turn growing digital adoption into dependable financial infrastructure while making services more accessible, strengthening consumer confidence and preparing for an increasingly technology-driven financial sector.
The programme featured two keynote sessions, three panel discussions, an expert deep dive, an insight session and a case study, connecting regional banking experience with the challenges facing Bangladesh’s financial ecosystem.
Welcoming participants, Bangladesh Brand Forum Group Chief Executive Officer and Executive Editor Sajid Mahbub said the next phase of the country’s fintech development would depend on converting digital adoption into lasting financial capability.
Innovation, he said, must make financial services more useful and accessible without weakening public trust.
He emphasised the need for financial institutions, entrepreneurs and policymakers to collaborate on the infrastructure and standards required to support the sector’s future growth.
Naushad Hussain, Chief Banking and Network Officer of TransFi Global, delivered a keynote examining the convergence of banking across the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and South Asia.
Hussain previously served as Group Chief Strategy Officer of Lightnet Group, a board member of Inception Technology Co Ltd and Managing Director and Head of Global Retail Payments at CIMB Group.
Another keynote speaker, Khuan Yew Lee, Executive Director and Regional Head of Product at GXBank, GXS Bank and Grab, discussed the journey of building a digital bank from its inception to one million customers.
Lee, a former senior product leader in global payments at Alibaba and Ant Group, highlighted the importance of product development and customer confidence in expanding digital banking services.
The expert deep-dive session was led by Gazi Yar Mohammed, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Kube Money and Co-founder of Dana Fintech.
Mohammed, formerly Executive Vice-President and Head of Digital Financial Services at One Bank Limited, examined the transition from automation to agentic artificial intelligence (AI) and its implications for Bangladeshi banks and fintech companies.
The discussion explored how increasingly autonomous AI systems could influence the delivery and management of financial services.
Other sessions examined how AI and digital banks could reshape Bangladesh’s financial sector over the next decade.
Speakers also discussed the role of cashless transactions and interoperability in extending financial services to the next 100 million people.
The summit addressed the need for secure and scalable financial infrastructure, alongside regulatory sandboxes, AI governance, data protection and consumer safeguards.
Discussions linked the opportunities created by emerging technologies with the institutional capacity and regulatory frameworks needed to strengthen confidence and enable responsible innovation.
Among the speakers were Dhaka Bank Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Osman Ershad Faiz, Pubali Bank Managing Director and CEO Mohammad Ali and Mutual Trust Bank Managing Director and CEO Syed Mahbubur Rahman.
Green Delta Insurance Managing Director and CEO Farzanah Chowdhury, a chartered insurer, also participated.
Other speakers included Bank Asia Adviser Ali Reza Iftekhar, a former Managing Director and CEO of Eastern Bank, and UCB Fintech Company Managing Director and CEO Shyamol B Das, who leads the mobile financial service Upay.
Mastercard Bangladesh Country Manager Zakia Sultana Laboni and Raptas CEO Yousup Faruqu, a former Managing Director of Microsoft for Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal, were also among the participants.
Independent University, Bangladesh Dean of Business and Policy Adviser Imran Rahman, who is also a board member of BRAC University and an Independent Director and Vice-Chairman of DBH Finance, joined the discussions.
Their contributions brought together perspectives from banking, payments, insurance, technology and institutional leadership, highlighting the challenges and opportunities facing Bangladesh’s digital financial transformation.
The summit sought to strengthen the country’s fintech ecosystem through knowledge exchange, industry collaboration and policy dialogue.
Brain Station 23 supported the event, while Bangladesh Innovation Conclave served as innovation partner. Turkish Airlines was the official carrier partner, Radisson Blu Water Garden Hotel the hospitality partner and Backpage PR the public relations partner.
