Mobile financial services passed Corona exam: Dr Atiur 

Mentioning that low-income people have benefitted from MFS during the pandemic, former Bangladesh Bank governor Professor Dr Atiur Rahman said mobile financial services have passed the "Corona exam".

"When we initiated mobile financial services in Bangladesh a decade ago, our focus was to ensure low-cost and accessible digital financial services to the low-income people living in the remote areas," he said at a seminar titled 'A Decade of MFS: Post-Pandemic Field Level Realities' organised jointly by Unnayan Shamannay and Knowledge Alliance Saturday (12 March). 

Dr Atiur Rahman pointed out that new MFS products such as the digital nano loan and small savings are coming up and making these available for the marginal people of Char areas should be properly prioritised.

Financial sector professionals, researchers, students, mass-media professionals, and other stakeholders were present at the event, read a press release. 

Panel discussants were- eminent economist Dr Ahsan H Mansur, former executive director of Bangladesh Bank Asim Kumar Dasgupta, and sociologist and founder of Knowledge Alliance Khondoker Sakhawat Ali.

Results from the field survey revealed that amid the pandemic low-income customers from Char areas have opened MFS accounts in great numbers. This was mainly due to the government decision to send cash transfers via MFS. 

Consequently, confidence of the Char customers has increased to a significant extent. 

The Char people relies mainly on the MFS agents to understand the technicalities of mobile financial services. 

However, reliance on agents in megacities and at the district or sub-district levels is gradually decreasing as customers they are using the app themselves. 

Khondoker Sakhawat Ali pointed out that half of the MFS accounts remain dormant as they were opened primarily to receive the cash transfers from the government amid the pandemic. 

He sees this as a positive sign and emphasizes on coming up with ways to encourage these customers to use those accounts for other purposes.

Dr Ahsan H Mansur said that along with sending and receiving money, other uses of MFS need to be increased. 

He believes it is very much possible to advance towards 'cashless society' though effective utilisation of MFS.