February 1: To improve the efficiency of banking services, the Bank of Bhutan (BOB) for the first time has launched a Data Centre in Phuentsholing.

Bank officials said Bank of Bhutan is the first financial institute to come up with a standard data base centre. Called the tier three data base centre, it constitutes of components including smoke and heat sensors besides the back up hardware.

Bought at a cost of Nu. 37 million, this infrastructure according to Bank officials will provide a basis to provide further services like internet banking and banking through SMS.

The CEO of the bank said they have set up an ambitious target of connecting all the 26 branches scattered throughout the country to the data centre by the end of 2010.

This, he said, will facilitate transactions from a bank branch anywhere with the same account. Networking all the 26 bank branches is estimated to cost over Nu. 200 million. But the bank also faces constraints such as the expertise to deal with the data centre and its related works.

Most bank branches still do their transactions manually and it will take some time before they learn how to use the new system. But the CEO said with financial institutions coming up with more competent technologies to provide services the BOB do not have the time to wait. For the BOB clients it is good news.