Mobile Banking

mobile banking

In addition, traditional banking is very costly for rural customers – they need to pay numerous charges such as half-yearly service charge, annual card charge, government charges and online charge (outstation transaction charge). Customers also need to maintain a minimum balance in their accounts which tends to be difficult for rural customers. Moreover, most of the rural people are not educated and thus cannot write cheques or sign them. This

barrier for the unbanked has been bypassed by DBBL’s Mobile Banking through which the customer can use their mobile phone to authenticate a transaction by typing their secret PIN (instead of having to write a cheque and signing it); if the combination of the PIN and the customer’s mobile phone number is correct, the transaction is passed.

Due to the absence of the appropriate system to address all the above issues, the rural, unbanked people of Bangladesh remained isolated from banking facilities and services. Until the launch of DBBL’s Mobile Banking system on May 31, 2011, there were no means through which to deliver banking services to the rural, destitute, unbanked people of Bangladesh. A total of 450 new employees joined the Mobile Banking Division of DBBL and were posted in different parts of Bangladesh. 151 small offices in the rural areas of Bangladesh were leased and employees were posted

in these offices. In each of these offices, a large number of mobile banking agents were nominated who, on behalf of DBBL, pay cash to the customers and receive deposits from them. These agents are normally small business owners (e.g. small shop owners or retailers). Ways to Financial Inclusion - Mobile Banking It is evident that financial inclusion is a necessity that will lead to the development of the rural economy of Bangladesh. But how to bring rural marginal savers under the umbrella of the formal banking system remains a challenge. Efforts have been made by NGOs using microfinance as a tool of...