Agent banking is very popular where banks do not have branches. Almost all the services of the bank are available at the agent booths at low cost and less time. As a result, customers and deposits are increasing every day. There is also a big growth in loan disbursement.
By June end, the number of subscribers in this service exceeded 2.3 crore. In the last one year, the number of customers has increased by about 32 lakh. And the growth in deposits and loan disbursement has been about 20 per cent and 44 per cent respectively.
Women are more involved in this service than men. However, women lag behind men in savings. This information was found in the latest report of Bangladesh Bank (BB).
Those concerned say that there is no alternative to agent banking in terms of financial inclusion in the country. Through this, it is possible to deliver banking services to people's doorsteps. It also saves the bank costs. For this, the banks are constantly increasing their agent banking activities.
Agent banking is a system of providing services through a third party without opening a branch. On December 9, 2013, BB issued a policy on managing agent banking activities. Initially, the policy allowed agent banking only in rural areas, but the following year, the policy was revised to allow agent banking in municipal and urban areas as well. So far, BB has approved agent banking in 31 banks, all of which are operating.
After searching, it is known that almost all types of services are available under the house or a little away from the house in the local bazar like agent outlet or Booth Bank. At the agent outlet, a customer easily has his biometric or finger impression.
Customers can manage account through fingerprint. From account opening facilities to deposits and withdrawals, mobile top-ups, money transfers (within the country), withdrawal of remittances, collection of utility bills and vehicle licence and fitness fees, disbursement and recovery of various loans and all types of social security programmes. Allowance is being delivered to the beneficiaries through this service.
There is no additional charge for this service. Apart from this, customers of agent banking can also take advantage of debit card, bank cheque book and internet banking. As a result, the popularity of this service is increasing.
A report on agent banking is published every quarter by BB. On Monday, September 9, the June-based report was released. It can be seen that at the end of last June, the number of bank accounts opened by customers under agent banking stood at 23,034,538, which was 19,852,240 till June 2023. As a result, the number of customers under this service has increased to about 3,182,298 in the last one year.
Out of this, 784,233 people have increased in these three months from April to June. According to the report, most of the agent banking customers are villagers. During this time, the number of customers in the village increased to 19,825,266, which is about 86 per cent of the total number of customers.
On the other hand, the number of women customers among agent banking account holders is now 11,512,484, which is 49.98 per cent of the total customers. And the number of male customers stands at 11,237,534, which is 48.79 per cent of the total customers. Apart from this, there are 284,520 or 1.23 per cent other customers.
Agent banking has seen an expected growth in deposit collection as customers increase. According to the report, at the end of June 2023, the amount of agent bank deposits was Tk 33,462 crore, which increased to Tk 40,073 crore at the end of June 2024. As a result, deposits through agent banks have increased by approximately Tk 6,611 crore or 19.76 per cent in the last one year.
In the last three months, there has been an increase of Tk 3,203 crore or 8.69 per cent. Men are ahead in deposit and savings of agent bankers. As of last June, men's deposits stood at Tk 23,353 crore or 58.28 per cent. At this time, the amount of women's deposits and savings stood at Tk 14,733 crores or 36.77 per cent.
People in remote areas of the village are also getting loans due to the welfare of agent bankers. According to the report, at the end of last June, the status of loan disbursement under agent banking stood at Tk 18,741 crore, which was Tk 13,042 crore till June 2023.
As a result, the loan disbursement in this service has increased by about Tk 5,700 crore or 43.70 per cent in the last one year. In the last three months, loan disbursement has increased by about Tk 2,259 crore or 13.71 per cent.
Not only the disbursement of deposits and loans, but also the disbursement of remittances sent by expatriates under agent banking is experiencing great growth.
According to the report, in the last one year, the distribution of remittances under Agent Banking has increased by about 28,521 crore or 21.97 per cent. In the last three months, remittance distribution has increased by Tk 8,396 crore or 5.60 per cent.
