Mobile financial service gaining momentum; Bank led model proves its agility. (Ref: www1.bssnews.net/newsDetails.php?cat=2&id=370283&date=2013-11-13) DHAKA, Nov 13, 2013 (BSS) - Beauty Khatun, working in a garments factory in Dhaka every month sends money to her parents living in Gaibanda. She used to send the money through courier service, relatives or acquaintances which was time consuming as well as unsafe and costly. It was quite challenging for me to find a relative or acquaintance every time to carry the cash for my parents. I was always worried about whether my parents receive the money or not, Beauty said. However, after the emergence of bKash and other mobile financial service providers, the life becomes easy for Beauty. Now I dont need to worry about sending money to my parents. I can send the money to them just using my mobile phone, narrated Beauty. Like Beauty, mobile banking has made life easy for millions of under privileged people in the country, as they can easily send and receive money using their mobile phones. Mobile financial service is getting momentum in the country as the number of the registered mobile banking customers soar to 7.4 million within two and half a year of launching. The service, launched in 2011 under the mobile financial service guidelines formulated by the Bangladesh Bank, provides the much needed financial access to the poor and unbanked population across the country, thus improving their living standard as well as boosting up the rural economy. Access to the formal banking system is very limited in Bangladesh as only 15 percent of the 160 million people have the bank accounts. However, the 110 million mobile phone users in the country are fuelling the expansion of mobile financial services in the country. Earlier, the Bangladesh Bank (BB) adopted a bank led model to allow mobile financial service in Bangladesh and granted license to 28 banks to launch the service. So far, 18 banks have started providing mobile financial service while bkash Limited, a BRAC bank subsidiary and Dutch Bangla Mobile Banking Limited is leading the sector. Under the guideline, mobile financial service offers cash in, cash out, salary disbursement, utility bill payment, inward remittances etc. BB officials said banks are in a better position as compared with other entities to lead the financial inclusion goal in Bangladesh leveraging the mobile technology. Dutch Bangla Bank first launched mobile financial service in March 2011 followed by bKash, a joint venture of BRAC Bank and Money in Motion LLC, an US mobile financial service company. Later in April 2013, International Finance Corporation, the private sector investment arm of World Bank Group became an equity partner of bKash. bKash, the largest MFS provider in the country has over seven million customers and an agent network of around 75,000 across the country, covering all villages across Bangladesh. bKashs CEO Kamal Quadir said, bKash is designed to serve the poor and reaching financial inclusivity. We opted for a technology that allows any body to access bKash platform regardless of the sophistication of the handset. bKash is deeply rooted in our objective of empowering the poor and unbanked people, added Quadir.
Posted on: Wed, 13 Nov 2013 12:25:22 +0000
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