Prime Bank and AGAM aim to transform the lending landscape in Bangladesh

By Leandra Monteiro

A digital platform that aims to revolutionise lending to both individuals and businesses is being launched by Prime Bank, a private commercial bank in Bangladesh with the system powered by AGAM, a next-generation UK FinTech.

The commercial rollout 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.

AGAM, which means ‘advance’ in Bangla, provides smart access to digital finance, empowering individuals and businesses without a credit score, with the prospect of demonstrating their creditworthiness 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 customer’s creditworthiness based on behavioral analysis and AI. The platform also allows borrowers to improve their credit scores through financial education modules.

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

Founder and CEO, 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.