The commercial roll out follows a successful pilot of the digital nano loans service platform - called PrimeAgrim, which was facilitated by the Bank, Swisscontact and UK headquartered AGAM, with the aim to provide smarter access to finance through artificial intelligence.

Approved by the Bangladesh Bank, the central bank of Bangladesh, PrimeAgrim won the Bangladesh Innovation Award in the Finance Category in March 2022 and the prestigious global EFMA-Accenture Banking Innovation Award 2021 under the Analytics & Artificial Intelligence Category. The Regulator, in support of the roll-out, has developed new rules to enable this type of product innovation.

AGAM, which means ‘advance’ in Bangla, has a mission to enhance both lives and livelihoods. Its platform provides a smart access to digital finance, empowering individuals and businesses without a credit score, with the prospect of demonstrating their credit worthiness via a novel dynamic credit scoring system. This system is based on AGAM’s ‘LARC’ AI algorithm (Literacy, Access, Resilience, Confidence – AGAM’s scoring technology) allowing a decision to be made on a customers’ credit worthiness based on behavioural analysis and AI. The platform also allows borrowers to improve their credit score through financial education modules.

The AGAM AI driven platform, which is integrated into Prime Bank’s infrastructure, meaning lending decisions for the bank’s customers can be taken in under five minutes.

AGAM recently secured international backing from the Development Bank of Wales in an oversubscribed investment round.

Passionate about innovation in fintech services and education to improve lives, founder and CEO, Shabnam Wazed, of Bangladeshi descent, set up AGAM in 2019 in the UK. With the support of senior entrepreneurs, tech and banking experts, Wazed aims to make a difference for the people in Bangladesh and then to roll out the repeatable model to other countries.

Speaking about Prime Bank-AGAM collaboration, Shabnam Wazed, said: “The pilot with Prime Bank has delivered a first-of-a-kind credit with very high levels of adoption, customer satisfaction and repayment rates. I founded AGAM to revolutionise lending and empower lives – to create credit histories to provide better futures for Bangladesh and beyond. I am very proud to be bringing the expertise I have learnt studying digital inclusion at Kings College in London back to Bangladesh.”

Prime Bank Deputy Managing Director and Chief Business Officer, Consumer Banking ANM Mahfuz said: “We are excited to grow our partnership with AGAM. As a pioneer of digital innovation, we have the mission to continuously deploy game-changing solutions to ensure better services to our customers. As we move to full commercial roll-out, this will enable us to move further and faster.”

Currently operating in Bangladesh with plans to expand into India, AGAM was supported by international NGO Swiss Contact in 2021 to launch this first pilot with Prime Bank, with the objective of creating a digital lending platform powered by Prime Bank’s products and AGAM’s digital platform.