Bangladesh to Launch Unified Digital ID Linking Services and Payments

Bangladesh's government says it will deploy a single digital identity, One-ID, within 18 to 24 months as the backbone of an AI-enabled digital public infrastructure backed by the World Bank, linking identification, financial payments, subsidies and data exchange through a smartphone wallet modelled on Estonia's X-Road. Officials described this at a UN event alongside similar cross-border identity systems being built by the EU, Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay. The rollout illustrates a widening global pattern in which access to government services and financial transactions is increasingly routed through a single, centrally administered digital identity.