Two-thirds of MFS accounts inactive: BTRC

Bangladesh's financial inclusion efforts that are riding on the nationwide existing mobile phone coverage are failing to take off in a big way as two-thirds of the mobile financial service accounts are inactive, said experts yesterday.

There are 3.2 crore mobile financial accounts in the country but two-thirds of them are inactive, said Mohammad Zulfikar, director for the system and services division of the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission.

"But mobile phone operators of the country can play an important role to connect the unbanked customers with the financial service," he said at a panel discussion on the second day of the South Asian Telecommunication Regulators' Council in Dhaka.

At present, 58 percent of the population is under the country's financial inclusion initiative, but of them, only 18 percent have banking access. The remaining 40 percent are unbanked.

"Mobile operators can play an important role if they get chance to operate their business in this segment," he added.

Speaking at the session styled 'Regulatory Issues and Challenges: Digital Inclusion', experts said without digital inclusion no development will be sustainable in the digital era. The biometric registration of all active SIMs in the country has created scope to make the financial service a digital one, said Emdad Ul Bari, director general of the BTRC.  "By partnering with the mobile industry the financial sector can get a further boost."

Before launching the biometric re-registration process, the BTRC found that 67 percent of the SIMs were registered with fake identification cards.

"The new database has created new opportunities for the industry. Now, the financial inclusion programme will be faster, m-commerce will be more and more secure and the access to e-governance easier," Bari added.

After completing the biometric re-registration, international illegal call termination declined 60 percent.

Pakistan Telecommunication Authority's Chairman Syed Ismail Shah said his country carried out electronic KYC [know your customer] in 2014, and after that they saw tremendous growth in digital financial sector and even in other digital services like health, education and agriculture. "From the beginning we went for a collaborative approach."

He said digital financial service is more than just mobile banking. "Through this process only mobile operators can ensure the real digital financial inclusion."

Shah thinks, in regions like South Asia, digital financial service will be the most effective solution.

As Bangladesh has already completed biometric re-registration it can easily launch digital financial services within a short time, he said.

Nepal Telecom Authority's Chairman Digambar Jha, who was moderating the session, said they will copy the Bangladeshi model for biometric re-registration.