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Atiur links m-bankingto faster financial inclusion

Star Business Report
MOBILE banking will speed up financial inclusion and bring more unbanked people under the banking system, said Bangladesh Bank Governor Aitur Rahman yesterday.
Fast expanding mobile telephony has opened windows of opportunity for creative partnerships of banks and mobile telephone companies in devising cost effective arrangements for delivery of financial services, said the governor.
He said around seven lakh people have opened mobile bank accounts and transacted Tk 713 crore up to May this year.
The central bank has so far issued certificates to 23 banks to introduce mobile financial services in the country and among those, 14 banks have already launched their services.
These services include disbursement of inward foreign remittances, utility bill payments, salary disbursement, government allowance payment and tax payment.
Rahman spoke at a daylong conference on e-banking and mobile commerce as the chief guest at Sonargaon Hotel.
Total Communications, Pakistan, organised the event with the support of Bankers' CTO Forum and SAARC Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
B2M Technologies Ltd is the
co-organiser of the event.
Rahman said the central bank has introduced fully automated clearing and settlement of interbank paper-based and electronic fund transfers, which is hugely facilitating branchbased, and mobile phone/smart card-based banking.
Presently 85,000-90,000 cheques are being cleared through Bangladesh Automated Cheque Processing System (BACPS), which is about 95 percent of total cheques cleared through the banking system, said the governor.
Around 18,000-20,000 electronic fund transfer transactions are being processed per day through Bangladesh Automated Clearing House, said Rahman.
Out of 47 banks operating in Bangladesh, 37 are fully online,
four partially online and six are in the process of going online. Around 79 percent banks now offer online banking services.
Tapan Kanti Sarkar, president of Bankers' CTO Forum, a platform of chief technical officers of banks, said security system of the banks should be strengthened for the electronic services.
Banks should launch mobile banking to reach their services to the unbanked people, said Sonia Bashir Kabir, country manager for Dell in Bangladesh.
The number of unbanked people in Bangladesh is 5.8 crore, according to a presentation of Abul Kashem Mohammed Shirin, deputy managing director of Dutch-Bangla Bank Ltd.
AK Azad, president of the Federation of the Bangladesh
Chambers of Commerce and Industry, said the days of traditional banking are gone.
Azad urged the government to develop a system so that businesspeople can open letters of credit from their offices. This will save their time and money, he said.
He said the government has introduced electronic commerce services in limited areas but the system is not working properly. Inter-bank connectivity is also poor, Azad added.
Absence of cyber law, expensive internet and a lack of awareness are the obstacles to effective e-commerce, he said.
Zia Ahmed, chairman of Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission, said people now do not have time to stand in long queues to get banking services, so mobile banking has become important.
He said almost the entire country has come under the mobile phone network.
ICT Secretary Nazrul Islam Khan said the entire country will come under the mobile-banking network within the next two to three years.
He also said all the high schools and madrasas will come under the internet network within nine to 11 months.
Analysts from India, Singapore, the Philippines, Pakistan and Dubai shared the latest global trends on e-banking and mobile commerce at the event.