Gazi Anowarul Hoque :
Transaction limit in Mobile financial service (MFS) is now a big concern for people who are spending millions of taka to celebrate holy Eid festival and a big barrier to Bangladesh Bank’s move towards a cashless society.
Eid shopping has reached its pick across the country. People remain busy with shopping from noon to nights in different market places from footpaths to decorated shopping malls. A large number of poor people living in rural areas receive ‘Zakaat’ and ‘Eid Donations’ from their well-to-do relatives and friends.
But people who are willing to disburse ‘Zakaat’ to many number of poor relatives and/or friends, are constrained by the person-to-person transaction limit, said a number of agents of mobile financial services. “The limit acts as a ‘show spoiler’ in the festive mood of common people”, said Monirul, an agent in Motijheel area.
Bangladesh Bank has restricted daily ceiling of mobile cash-in to Taka 15,000, lower from the previous amount of Taka 25,000, while maximum cash-out limit has been slashed to Taka 10,000 from Taka 25,000. “This restriction refrains the users to send money to their relatives at their desired level, discourages them to use digital money and ultimately hits the central bank’s move towards cashless society”, said a banker.
Experts see the imposed limit counterproductive to financial inclusion and steady growth of MFS industry. “People are facing troubles to meet their expense needs and losing interest in using this payment service as cash-out and cash-in limit are too small. This will ultimately hit the central bank’s move towards a cashless society”, said a senior banker.
In Bangladesh, many study reports say MFS is a success story as it is unleashing fortunes for the people at the bottom of the pyramid with its multidimensional effects to the material implementation of financial inclusion. The success can be far-reaching if opportunity is created for the people to embrace its full potentiality.
“It’s a revolution in payment that pushes up our sales. Most of our customers love to use bKash account instead of ATM cards as bKash app is easy to use and help them to store and disburse money against any sales anywhere any time”,——- Zahir, a trader in South Keranigonj said.
“But transaction limit remains as a big barrier”, Abdus Salam, another shop owner said. “Customers love more digital money; they don’t want to carry cash for many reasons. But not preferring transaction limits set by Bangladesh Bank remains the big hurdle’, he said.
With increased per capita income of Bangladesh, the money circulation is bound to pick higher threshold in coming days. Therefore, in keeping with the current MFS industry scenario, the restriction on transaction limit imposed during January 2017 may be revoked to previous limits.
A large number of agents of different mobile financial services are deployed in different cattle markets to facilitate buyers and sellers digital money transactions. “Payment through mobile phone is a blessing for us particularly in Eid festival. But transaction limit remains a big hurdle in its way of growth’, said Almas sarker, a cattle trader at Gabtoli area in the city.
“People will lose confidence to use mobile financial service if the authority concern does not increase this limit’, he said.
As most low income people do not use ATM cards, industry experts say, Bangladesh Bank’s limit to mobile banking hinders its journey towards a cashless society. Bangladeshi banks have adopted the secured platform to inspire customers using online payments.
Bangladesh has a bright prospect to push up its growth using mobile banking, industry experts say noting a new study that shows consumer use of mobile banking applications is accelerating at a rapid pace. A new study released by the London- based Juniper Research Jupitar says the global number of mobile contactless users will exceed 760 million by 2020, up from an estimated 440 million in 2018. In Bangladesh, the growth is moderate but higher than users of internet.
Juniper said while contactless payments use has risen rapidly, it does not mean higher growth for mobile contactless payments. In many established markets, contactless cards remain the most likely to have increased current and future usage by consumers.
Transaction limit in Mobile financial service (MFS) is now a big concern for people who are spending millions of taka to celebrate holy Eid festival and a big barrier to Bangladesh Bank’s move towards a cashless society.
Eid shopping has reached its pick across the country. People remain busy with shopping from noon to nights in different market places from footpaths to decorated shopping malls. A large number of poor people living in rural areas receive ‘Zakaat’ and ‘Eid Donations’ from their well-to-do relatives and friends.
But people who are willing to disburse ‘Zakaat’ to many number of poor relatives and/or friends, are constrained by the person-to-person transaction limit, said a number of agents of mobile financial services. “The limit acts as a ‘show spoiler’ in the festive mood of common people”, said Monirul, an agent in Motijheel area.
Bangladesh Bank has restricted daily ceiling of mobile cash-in to Taka 15,000, lower from the previous amount of Taka 25,000, while maximum cash-out limit has been slashed to Taka 10,000 from Taka 25,000. “This restriction refrains the users to send money to their relatives at their desired level, discourages them to use digital money and ultimately hits the central bank’s move towards cashless society”, said a banker.
Experts see the imposed limit counterproductive to financial inclusion and steady growth of MFS industry. “People are facing troubles to meet their expense needs and losing interest in using this payment service as cash-out and cash-in limit are too small. This will ultimately hit the central bank’s move towards a cashless society”, said a senior banker.
In Bangladesh, many study reports say MFS is a success story as it is unleashing fortunes for the people at the bottom of the pyramid with its multidimensional effects to the material implementation of financial inclusion. The success can be far-reaching if opportunity is created for the people to embrace its full potentiality.
“It’s a revolution in payment that pushes up our sales. Most of our customers love to use bKash account instead of ATM cards as bKash app is easy to use and help them to store and disburse money against any sales anywhere any time”,——- Zahir, a trader in South Keranigonj said.
“But transaction limit remains as a big barrier”, Abdus Salam, another shop owner said. “Customers love more digital money; they don’t want to carry cash for many reasons. But not preferring transaction limits set by Bangladesh Bank remains the big hurdle’, he said.
With increased per capita income of Bangladesh, the money circulation is bound to pick higher threshold in coming days. Therefore, in keeping with the current MFS industry scenario, the restriction on transaction limit imposed during January 2017 may be revoked to previous limits.
A large number of agents of different mobile financial services are deployed in different cattle markets to facilitate buyers and sellers digital money transactions. “Payment through mobile phone is a blessing for us particularly in Eid festival. But transaction limit remains a big hurdle in its way of growth’, said Almas sarker, a cattle trader at Gabtoli area in the city.
“People will lose confidence to use mobile financial service if the authority concern does not increase this limit’, he said.
As most low income people do not use ATM cards, industry experts say, Bangladesh Bank’s limit to mobile banking hinders its journey towards a cashless society. Bangladeshi banks have adopted the secured platform to inspire customers using online payments.
Bangladesh has a bright prospect to push up its growth using mobile banking, industry experts say noting a new study that shows consumer use of mobile banking applications is accelerating at a rapid pace. A new study released by the London- based Juniper Research Jupitar says the global number of mobile contactless users will exceed 760 million by 2020, up from an estimated 440 million in 2018. In Bangladesh, the growth is moderate but higher than users of internet.
Juniper said while contactless payments use has risen rapidly, it does not mean higher growth for mobile contactless payments. In many established markets, contactless cards remain the most likely to have increased current and future usage by consumers.
