Nagad’s ED named ‘Best Emerging Director in Fintech’

Maruful Islam Jhalak, the Executive Director (ED) of Nagad Limited, has been named the “Best Emerging Director in Fintech” by UK-based The Global Economics Ltd, one of the prominent bi-annual business publications in the world.

Jhalak is the first individual from the country's fintech industry to earn this award in the leadership category from the prestigious publication, The Global Economics Ltd, said a press release.

Maruful Islam Jhalak, the Executive Director of Nagad oversees the technical aspects of the company. Jhalak is a tech visionary and architect who played a vital role in the implementation of revolutionary concepts such as E-KYC and D-KYC.

E-KYC is widely recognised as the country's first true digital revolution in the financial industry.

In addition, Jhalak was instrumental in pioneering first-of-its-kind innovations and streamlining the process of opening accounts by simply dialling *167#; known as D-KYC, which has emerged as a role model for the country's financial industry.

These groundbreaking innovations have been Nagad's most significant endeavours to date, allowing the company to take bold measures such as lowering cash-out rates to a single digit and acquiring 6.5 crore customers in a short span of time.

Global Economics recognised Maruful Islam Jhalak for his remarkable contribution to the introduction of these innovative fintech solutions that have truly steered the country’s financial industry towards digitisation.

Expressing his thoughts on receiving the award Maruful Islam Jhalak, the Executive Director of Nagad, said "I am humbled and thrilled that the prominent publication recognized my contributions.”

“Nagad has introduced numerous game-changing innovations that have robustly altered the country’s financial industry landscape. I am truly delighted to be a part of such endeavours, and this acknowledgment from a global platform will undoubtedly inspire me to bring more digitization concepts to reality in the days ahead,” he added.

Through the leadership award, ‘The Global Economics’ recognises leaders who strive hard to bring revolutionary changes to their economies.

This year, the publication honoured 20 top executives from all around the world for their extraordinary contributions to their respective industries.

Notable award winners in 2022 include Vijay Manoharan of CIMB Bank Philippines Ltd, Philippines in the ‘Best Banking CEO of the Year’ category; Michele Ferrario of StashAway, Singapore in the ‘Best Emerging CEO in Digital Wealth Management’ category; Hussain Abdulla of QInvest, Qatar in the ‘Best CEO in Investment Banking’ category; and Farouk Mustafa Rasool of Asiacell, Iraq in the ‘Best Entrepreneur in Telecom’ category, among others.

Earlier in 2021 Global Economics awarded Nagad, the mobile financial venture of the Bangladesh Post Office, as ‘Best DFS (Digital Finance Service Award) of 2021. The publication recognized Nagad, under the criteria of digital transformations in technological innovation through the ‘Best DFS Award’.