To ask the Secretary of State for International Development to what projects and programmes he has allocated funding for the development of micropayment transaction systems in Bangladesh in the last five years. (318912)

The Department for International Development (DFID) has funded the £13.4 million Remittances and Payments Partnership (RPP) project since 2006. RPP is helping to modernise Bangladesh's payment systems, including supporting the legal framework for micropayment transactions and reducing the costs of remittances for the poor. A challenge fund under RPP has supported both piloting and scaling up of innovative micropayment transaction systems.

DFID has not supported any other such projects or programmes in Bangladesh in the last five years.

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development how much funding the (a) Grameen bank and (b) Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee has received for the purposes of developing a micropayment transaction system in the last five years. (318913)

The Department for International Development (DFID) has not provided any funding to either Grameen Bank or BRAC to develop micropayment transaction systems in the last five years.

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development whether he has had recent discussions with (a) Muhammad Yunus and (b) Grameen bank on micropayment transactions in Bangladesh. (318914)

The Department for International Development (DFID) has had no such recent discussions with Professor Yunus or with Grameen Bank.

DFID, together with the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP), recently organised a conference on “Expanding Financial Services in Bangladesh” to which Grameen Bank was invited along with other banks and micro-finance lenders. Discussions at the conference focused on how to reach those without bank accounts and improve payment systems in Bangladesh, particularly using mobile telephones.