Bankers say at a seminar
The mobile financing can bring rapid changes in the micro credit sector by developing savings, loan disbursement and repayment modules, said speakers at a seminar organised by Microcredit Regulatory Authority on Tuesday. Addressing a seminar titled Mobile Banking in Microfinance Operations at CIRDAP auditorium, representatives from the banks and the micro finance institutions said the idea can change the micro credit industry and will also open a new segment for mobile financing.
They said the micro credit industry needs structural support of the new technologies in order to add dynamism to their operations.
Bangladesh Bank deputy director Progga Paromita presented the keynote paper at the seminar where she emphasised on the linkage between the micro credit institutions and the mobile financing.
‘At present, 19 banks are providing mobile banking service to more than one crore people through 1.5 lakh agents across the country,’ she said.
She said mobile banking is faster and cheaper which will add value to the micro credit business.
Representatives from different micro credit institutions, however, said the present cost module of the mobile financing is not suitable for the micro credit industry.
They said the transaction charge is too high compared to the loan servicing charge by the micro credit institutions.
‘The mobile financing charge seems high for the micro credit institutions and we need to work on that if we want to make it viable,’ BB executive director Dasgupta Ashim Kumar said while addressing as a special guest.
He said as the mobile financing in the country follows bank-led model, so it is more reliable.
M Aslam Alam, the secretary of banking and financial division of the finance ministry, said the agent banking is like 3G technology in the banking system.
‘Branch based banking was first generation technology, mobile financing is the 2G technology and agent banking will be like the 3G technology for the banking sector,’ he said.
He said the agent banking which is linked with mobile financing will create revaluation in the non-traditional banking.
‘It will create financial inclusion and bring the unbanked people in the mainstream,’ he said.
Dutch-Bangla Bank deputy managing director Abul Kashem and MRA executive vice-chairman Khondkar Mazaharul Haque were present on the occasion, among others.
-With New Age input
