Veon has applied for a digital banking licence via its Bangladesh-based unit Banglalink, as the group looks to expand into fintech services.
Veon Group CEO Kaan Terzioglu said in a statement: "Banglalink's ambitions for digital banking underscore VEON’s commitment to digital empowerment, which is a core pillar of VEON's Digital Operator strategy, deployed across all our markets. We have the expertise and the scale to support Banglalink in its drive for innovation, financial inclusion, and digital transformation in Bangladesh.
Banglalink CEO Erik Aas added Bangladesh has a population of 173 million people but banking services “is still very low”.
The operator group submitted its digital banking licence application to the Central Bank of Bangladesh. Banglalink is a fully owned subsidiary of Veon with over 42 million mobile subscribers. It also counts 7.1 million active users on its MyBL super app which offers services such as music streaming, gaming and bill payments.
Veon currently serves 21.6 million monthly users with financial services. The company’s footprint stretches across Eastern Europe and South Asia: Pakistan, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Bangladesh.
