Anisur Rahman Khan :
In a stark contrast to the trend of leading banks moving to cities for pro-rich banking, the Agrani Bank is knocking at the doors of the marginal people in the villages. Going door to door in rural areas, the bank agents are working with ‘Agrani Doar Banking’ for economic inclusion of the poor who are left out of banking coverage.
The pro-poor banking policy yielded overwhelmingly and the number of beneficiaries of the programme reaches hefty 1.37 crore, said the top brass of the bank.
The Agrani Bank is proceeding with the policy of opening ‘Doar Banking’ as its agent banking window across the country.
Agrani Bank claims to be the first among its peers to introduce the concept of agent banking in Bangladesh in collaboration with a BRAC University professor and initiated a project on trial basis at Madhabpur Upazila in Habiganj district in 2010.
As a result, Bangladesh Bank (BB) in 2011 issued directives to the banking sector to embrace the concept of agent banking. Among the state run banks, only Agrani Bank opened the agent banking operation, according to Agrani Bank sources.
The central bank shows that agent banking service at present reaches up to union level in order to keep deposit, loan disbursement, Bangladeshi immigrant transaction and school banking services too.
In response to a query from The New Nation regarding the agent banking, the Agrani Bank Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Md. Shams Ul Islam said, “Agrani Bank took initiative for the first time in the history of Bangladesh back in 2010 in collaboration with BRAC University for the betterment of marginal people. It was on a trial basis.”
After that, Bangladesh Bank approved of such a concept in 2011 and instructed all banks to introduce such an agent banking system, he added.
The CEO also said at present the number of agents employed by the bank is 400 and it is now looking forward to getting approval from Bangladesh Bank on 200 more agents.
“Under the service, marginal people will get the privilege of opening savings accounts, current accounts, DPS, FDR and doing school banking, together with transactions of foreign remittance, payment of gas and electricity bills, purchase of bus tickets and digital transactions,” he added.
