With a view to promote and deepen the use of digital payments and to bring the advantage of digital economy, the Royal Monetary Authority, in collaboration with the banks, is pleased to inform the general public, start-ups and businesses on the availability of international payment gateway (IPG) facility to receive online payments from the international card holders. The facility can accept payments from cards of all international card networks, including VISA, MasterCard, American Express and others. The service is available with the Bank of Bhutan and the Bhutan National Bank since 2015 and 2019, respectively. As on date, the service is availed by more than 400 local merchants, including close to 200 tour operators.
In addition, the domestic payment gateway, launched by the RMA, accepts online domestic payment for a majority of services provided by the Royal Government of Bhutan. Apart from these, other service providers like Bhutan Power Corporation, Telecoms and others also have direct integration with the respective bank’s mobile apps for processing the payments.
For information of the general public, IPG requires businesses to have a website through which they sell their products or services, and on which a link to the payment option through the IPG is available on registration. Once the payment option is implemented on the website, their products and services can be purchased using any internationally accepted card brands from the comfort of their homes. BoB has about more 240 registered IPG merchants as of now, while BNB has about 200.
For more information, please visit: https://www.bob.bt/eacquiring-bobl-epayment-gateway/ or https://pay.bnb.bt
Apart from the IPG, the following digital payment methods are also available through the banks in the country:
1. Money Transfer Operators (MTOs):
a. Ria: https://dc.riafinancial.com/en/find-location
b. Xpress Money: https://www.xpressmoney.com/money-transfer-location
c. MoneyGram: https://www.moneygram.com/mgo/us/en/locations or https://www.bnb.bt/moneygram/
d. TPayRemit (https://tpayremit.tbank.bt)
e. TRemit (https://www.tbank.bt)
2. SWIFT Transfer Facility
a. https://www.bob.bt/foreign-currency-remittance/
b. https://www.bnb.bt/swift/
c. https://www.tbank.bt/swift/
As part of the effort to facilitate access to digital payments and to promote inclusion, we encourage the merchants/businesses in Bhutan who want to export their products and services outside the country to leverage these digital payments by enabling new internet-based business models. For more information and support, please contact the following:
BOBL: Toll-free 1095 / cards@bob.bt
BNBL: Toll-free 6070 / email contact@bnb.bt
TBANK: Toll-free 7070 / email info@tbank.bt
RMA: 321698 / email itd@rma.org.bt or pssd@rma.org.bt