Mobile Financial Service
Number of subscribers drop by 5 lakh in April
“The MFS is probably facing some ill effects of biometric SIM registration”
Subhankar Saha
Bangladesh Bank spokesperson
STAFF REPORTER
The number of customers using Mobile Financial Service (MFS) has declined by 3.57 per cent in April when compared to march. The latest data of Bangladesh Bank shows that the number of active MFS customers declined by 5 .09 lakh to 137.34 lakh in April from 142.43 lakh in March.
The number mof agents decreased by 1.25 per cent as well while average number of daily transactions decreased by 41 per cent during the same period.
According to the central bank data, average daily transaction through MFS declined from 608 crore 5 lakh in March to 606 crore 98 lakh in the month of April. The amount of cash out amount through MFS has declined by 43 per cent, though amount of cash
in through the service increased by 24 per cent.
When asked to a senior official of Bangladesh Bank MFS department he said that due to implementation of some strict rules there has been some negative growth at the moment but this is nothing to get alarmed off.
Bangladesh Bank spoke person Subhankar Saha said market will face ups and down and the MFS is probably facing some ill effects of biometric SIM registration.
BB launched mobile financial services in 2011 through a regulation. Any mobile phone user can make monetary transactions with the help of this service.
A mobile phone user can open a bank account at any of the 20 banks and deposit or withdraw money and enjoy many services, including making payments of utility bills.
Although 29 banks received permission for MFS, only 18 banks provided the service in March, and 19 banks in April.
Mobile financial services approved by BB (in broad categories) are: disbursement of inward foreign remittances, cash in/out using mobile account through agents/ bank branches/ ATMs/ mobile operators outlets, person-to-business payments, such as utility bill payments and merchant payments, business-to-person payments, such as salary disbursements, dividend and refund warrant payments, vendor payments, etc.
Also included are government-to-person payments, such as elderly allowances, freedom fighter allowances, subsidies, etc., person-to-government payments, such as payments of taxes and levies, and person-to-person payments (one registered mobile account to another registered mobile account). Other payments include microfinance, overdrawn facility, insurance premium, DPS, etc.
BB has fixed the transaction limit for the account holders of mobile financial services at a maximum of Tk 10,000 daily and a total of Tk 25,000 on a monthly basis, vide DCMPS circular no. 10/2011 of December 14, 2011.
