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Untapped potential remains in digital payments: experts

Muhammad Zahidul Islam
Bangladesh has made a solid start towards digitising government payments, as already 69 percent of all government transaction values go through this channel, which is tremendous, experts said.
Ruth Goodwin-Groen, managing director of Better Than Cash Alliance (BTCA), a UN-based think tank, and Anir Chowdhury, policy adviser to the Access to Information (A2i) programme under the Prime Minister's Office, said there is still untapped potential in this field that needs attention.
They were talking to The Daily Star in an interview recently.
To grow competition in the digital financial sector, greater partnership is required within the government, financial sector, private sector and mobile service providers to ensure more innovation and product diversification, they said.
Groen, who was visiting Dhaka last week to launch a report on Bangladesh's digital payment systems, said this market is brimming with digital money as it has achieved significant growth in financial inclusion, reaching the unbanked people with the paperless transactions.
"This is a great start to financial digitisation though the volume of transactions is very low. I think there is a huge opportunity to expand digital financial services," she said.
Chowdhury said Bangladesh saw success in the person-to-person money transfer segment using digital channels, but some other segments, like business-to-business or person-to-government, need more attention.
To bring digital financial services to the
unbanked population of the country, innovation is a must, said Chowdhury.
"We need more products that will benefit the common people and for that, we need huge research. Alliances should be created with banks, private sector, other non-bank financial institutions and the government to conduct those researches and make product diversification possible."
Emphasising partnerships, Groen said, "The key thing is allowing different types of service providers, including banks, mobile service providers as well as digital payment service providers, to compete in the market."
On the security issue, Chowdhury said electronic money is more secure than cash. In Bangladesh, the market has already hit a billion transactions in a year; now, the country needs inclusion, he added.
"In terms of transaction value and volume, we got tremendous success. But inclusion is missing and to achieve true success, we need to find the road to further inclusion."
Groen said, "Digital payments can help Bangladesh deepen financial inclusion, boost economic growth and reduce cost through specific reforms."
BTCA is a global partnership of governments, companies, and international organisations that accelerate the transition from cash to digital payments in order to reduce poverty and drive inclusive growth.
BTCA and a2i ran the study 'Building Digital Bangladesh: The Way Forward for Digitising Payments' authored by pi Strategy Consulting, which comes soon after a McKinsey Global Institute study found that digital finance was particularly important for a country like Bangladesh. The study found that the country has made a significant stride towards a digital economy as around 69 percent of government payments, or about $45 billion, are now being transacted through digital channels.
This diagnostic report also found that only 2.5 percent of individual payments and 3 percent of business transactions are made digitally.
Bangladesh has experienced 120 percent year-on-year growth in mobile financial services transactions on average since 2011, according to the report. In 2015, more than one billion transactions were made digitally worth nearly $20 billion.
“The significant progress in moving away from cash that Bangladesh has made in such a short time is due to the government's strong leadership, the innovation of the private sector and citizens' openness to a digital future, ’ Groen said.
Highlighting the phenomenal growth the country is experiencing in the area of mobile financial services, she observed that there is still scope for further expansion in terms of products and usage.
"As a country striving for inclusive growth, Bangladesh has an exceptional opportunity to harness electronic payments to transform lives, businesses, and economies at all levels," she said.
“It is not just one player in the market or one government department that should act alone to ensure digital financial inclusion, rather, all the different stakeholders need to work together to create an ecosystem that works for everyone. “
The regulatory environment needs to be improved to achieve more competition in the market of mobile financial service, both experts said.
This will result in greater product innovation, and will be a vital step in improving the business case for businesses to move towards digital payments, they said.