A comprehensive evaluation of Bangladesh’s e-KYC system to enhance financial inclusion

• Dec 28, 2023
• 1 min

Bangladesh Bank wanted to introduce an e-KYC system to boost financial inclusion countrywide. Under the system, customers would not need to provide paper-based copies of authentication documents to open bank accounts. The e-KYC will use the national identity number and biometrics to make the authentication process seamless. United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Bangladesh commissioned MSC to evaluate the e-KYC pilot and suggest reforms to the existing e-KYC guidelines for key stakeholders. MSC finalized the work plan, approach, methodology, and expectations of key stakeholders for the e-KYC pilot. We finalized the research tools and conducted a representative survey with the service providers and end-users.

MSC delivered an interim report that highlighted key findings and recommendations on the present state of the e-KYC process. We delivered the final report based on the analysis with recommendations on fingerprint-based, face-matching, and OCR-based (optical character recognition) e-KYC; a unified identity database; data privacy; and customer protection.

Bangladesh Bank modified the processes based on our recommendations and brought necessary changes to the draft guidelines.

United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) commissioned the project.