The current government’s Digital Bangladesh initiative has been transformative for the country, with our digital infrastructure finally starting to resemble the standards of other, more developed nations.
However, one arena that has seemingly played catch-up in becoming more digitized is our banking sector. Even though internet banking has been around in Bangladesh for a long time now, arbitrary limitations when it comes to transactions have kept adoption of the technology from becoming wider and more prominent in the mainstream.
Of course, as Covid-19 forced us all into our homes it resulted in increased numbers of digital transactions. Internet banking transactions rose 34.58% year on year to Tk8,477.3 crore in February 2021, as per central bank data, while users of internet banking also rose 29.83% from February 2020 till February 2021.
The demand has always been there, with the only hurdles on the way being unreasonable regulatory rules and red tape.
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To that end, the Bangladesh Bank’s recent announcement of its withdrawal of the cap on daily inter-bank transactions related to online fund transfers is more than welcome, as it goes just another step towards Bangladesh ultimately becoming a cashless economy.
It is important to note that this sharp increase in demand for online banking has been reactive rather than pro-active, with all the banks reacting to the lockdowns as a result of the pandemic and investing in internet banking, agent banking, and mobile financial services.
If our central bank keeps waiting around to gauge demand it would ultimately end up stifling our digital ambitions.
Advances in technology are never made passively but actively, and given that we already have a well-established digital infrastructure in place, it would be nothing short of foolish for our banking sector to keep gauging public interest in order for them to truly make good on its potential.
