TBT DESK:
Disbursement amount of inward remittances through agent banking rose 21.16 %to Tk 1,73,390.72 crore at the end of December 2024.
At the end of December 2023, the figure was Tk 143,113.28 crore, which increased in September 2024 to Tk 165,659 crore, according to the quarterly report on agent banking published by the Bangladesh Bank (BB).
In the September 2024 quarter, the amount of inward remittances collected and disbursed by agents increased by 4.67 % over the previous quarter. A senior official of the central bank said this increase in inward remittances through agent banking is supposed to be a positive outcome of the government's initiative of providing a 2.5 % cash incentive on inward remittances. Moreover, banks' financial literacy campaigns focusing on the theme "Enhance Social Awareness to send Remittance through Legal Channel," announced by Bangladesh Bank are expected to have a positive impact on remittance inflow, he added.
He said agents are contributing promisingly in this regard since customers are likely to get doorstep banking services within the shortest possible time. Thus, Agent Banking is becoming a popular channel for inward remittance distribution, he added.
According to the report, agent banking accounts opened in rural areas have always been the major recipients of the remittance disbursed, as they received 90.12 %of December 2024's total.
Of the total, only around 10 % or Tk 7,731 crore was received by those with agent banking accounts in urban areas.
The top five banks have a 95.75 % share of the total inward remittances distributed through agent banking till December 2024. Islami Bank Bangladesh PLC ranks at the top with Tk 92,300.11 crore, which is 53.23 % of the total inward remittances distributed through agent banking.
Dutch-Bangla Bank PLC distributed 26.92 % of Bank Asia PLC's 7.98 %, Al-Arafah Islami Bank PLC 4.43 %and Agrani Bank PLC 3.19 %.
Abdul Quaium Chowdhury, deputy managing director of Premier Bank PLC, said that the rising trend of agent banking, especially in rural areas, indicates that there is a remarkable potential to bring the rural unbanked people under the umbrella of formal banking services.
He said the flow of remittances into the country shows an upward trend as the government has taken measures to streamline the legal channel for encouraging non-resident Bangladeshis (NRBs) to send money to the country.
Bangladesh Bank introduced agent banking in Bangladesh in 2013 intending to provide a safe alternate delivery channel of banking services. The targeted customers of this service were the under-served population who generally live in geographically remote locations that are hard to reach by the formal banking networks.