In the seven years since it was introduced, the school banking programme has grown to an enormous size.
As of March this year, over 1.3 million accounts were opened with an average of about Tk8,300 deposit.
Bangladesh Bank launched the programme in November 2010, asking all banks to let students open accounts at all their branches. The aim of the programme was to help students and parents save up for the future, learn financial literacy at an early age and encourage the habit of saving in students.
Fifty-six of the country’s 57 scheduled banks are now implementing the programme. Some banks have dedicated counters and desks.
Under the programme, students aged between 6 and 18 are allowed to open bank accounts. Their guardians have to operate the accounts on their behalf.
Students have to fill-up a Know Your Customer (KYC) form and submit their birth certificate and school ID to avail an account. The accounts can be deposit or savings accounts.
The banks issue debit cards against the accounts and the monthly withdrawal limit is set at Tk2,000, though one can draw up to Tk5,000 with their parents' request. Students do not pay service charges for the debit card.
In the beginning, one could open an account with only Tk10, but in 2013, Bangladesh Bank formulated a policy for school banking, raising the minimum ceiling to Tk100.
School banking grew slowly at the beginning, with only 29,080 accounts opened in the first year. It took two-and-a-half years to reach the 150,000 mark.
But it has grown massively since then, with the number of accounts standing at 1,374,443 this March and total deposits in those accounts at Tk1,138 crore, according to the latest Bangladesh Bank data.
The data shows that private commercial banks had done better than state-owned banks in both number of accounts and deposits. In private banks, 846,556 school banking accounts have been opened so far, or 61.59% of the total accounts. The amount of deposits in the accounts stands at Tk950 crore, which is 86.27% of the total deposits.
Islami Bank Bangladesh Limited (IBBL) is leading with the highest number of student accounts while Dutch-Bangla Bank Limited (DBBL) leads in the volume of money deposited.
At IBBL, there are 216,534 accounts which are 16% of the total, followed by 178,514 at Agrani Bank.
On the other hand, in term of deposit volume, DBBL's deposits in school accounts stand at Tk360 crore, which is 33% of the total, while deposits at IBBL stand at Tk107 crore, Eastern Bank at Tk95 crore, United Commercial Bank at Tk57 crore and Rupali Bank at Tk50 crore.
When asked about the highest deposit at DBBL, the bank’s Managing Director Abul Kashem Md Shirin told the Dhaka Tribune: “Different government scholarships are disbursed through our bank. Mobile banking, agent banking and branch banking can be availed. Furthermore, we have a number of attractive projects that have interested students in our school banking.”
The MD also believes that DBBL's widest coverage of ATM booths attracts students to the bank.
The programme was introduced by Dr Atiur Rahman when he was the central bank governor, as a part of his plans for financial inclusion.
Atiur told the Dhaka Tribune that there were three motivations behind the plan.
“Firstly we wanted to create financial literacy among students so that they acquire the habit of savings from an early age. The scheme also teaches children about money management skills that may be useful for the rest of their lives.
“Secondly, we thought the habit of banking from childhood would help the students to become entrepreneurs in the future.
“Thirdly, from an economic aspect, we planned to create a stable deposit base in banking. It has now come to fruition. You see the deposit stands over Tk1,000 crore and the banks can easily invest Tk800 crore from that.”
Bangladesh Bank now wants to spread school banking through banking education.
BB Deputy Governor SK Sur Chowdhury in a recent letter requested the education secretary to include school banking in the syllabus.
BB Executive Director Subhankar Saha told the Dhaka Tribune: “School banking is increasing spontaneously, which is a great achievement and we are receiving international appreciation for the programme.”
The central bank has been working very closely with other banks to make the programme more attractive, he said.
However, the popularity of school banking in rural areas lags far behind the cities. Till March 31, the number of accounts in city branches stood at 827,402, while only 547,041 accounts were opened with rural branches.
When asked about this, Subhankar Saha said: “We are asking banks to raise awareness for school banking in rural areas. We have already attended several school banking conferences in rural areas, where senior central bank officials spoke to encourage students in school banking.”
Thursday, June 04, 2026
