The Bangladesh Bank move to integrate a total of seven business entities including four commercial banks into Mobile Financial Services platform poses challenge.
According to the MFS revised guidelines, mobile phone operators will now enjoy beneficial ownership.
Led by four commercial banks, each Mobile Financial Services platform will incorporate two non-bank entities, plus one mobile phone operator as share holders into its business.
The commercial banks will hold majority of beneficial ownership, with non-banks not exceeding 15% and Mobile Network Operators (MNO) 30% in their total equities.
The central bank made the revised guideline to provide the poor and unbanked population segments in rural areas with greater access to formal financial services at an affordable cost.
Most mobile phone operators, however, are opposed to the guidelines due to its forthcoming implementation complexity.
Requesting anonymity, an MNO official said it would be very tough to form an MFS platform, integrating seven organisations into a single platform and sharing profit among them.
Mahmud Hossain, chief corporate affairs officer of Grameenphone, told The Dhaka Tribune that composing such platform led by banks would be “extremely difficult”.
Ekram Kabir, vice-president of Robi Axiata limited, however, welcomed the guidelines, but suggested that the central bank should increase the beneficial ownership of cellphone operators.
The central bank hopes to reduce the use of cash and its associated costs, plus put in place compliance drills required by the Anti-Money Laundering and Combating Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) laws and regulations.
Requesting anonymity, an official of a mobile phone operator, said the operators will not benefit much as the guidelines will lead to more competition in the market.
Bangladesh Bank considers regulatory framework for Mobile phone-based Financial Services, providing an enabling environment for innovations in cost efficient off-branch financial services delivery.
The mobile banking sector has contributed to huge transactions over the last couple of years helping Bangladesh reach a new dimension, said a former high official of the central bank.
According to a USAID research, the mobile phone transactions were Tk11,104 crore in February while Bangladesh accounts for more than 8% of the total registered mobile money accounts globally.
Dasgupta Asim Kumar, former executive director of Bangladesh Bank, said it should be well-regulated by the financial institutions so that the central bank can control it properly.
A former official of the central bank told the Dhaka Tribune the main objective of mobile financial banking is to provide services for the grass roots.
Bangladesh Bank should not focus on the perspective of ownership or benefit of any organisations, he suggested, adding that even formulation of a new guideline is not necessary since the first guideline was good enough.
Asking not be quoted, a BB official said despite impressive growth gains in the capital base, income and returns on equity and other areas, the financial sector is lagging behind in terms of reaching out adequate financial services to a large swathe of farms and non-farm economic activities of low-income rural and urban population in Bangladesh.
