bKash introduces add money service from Visa to contain corona spread
The service has been launched to minimise customers’ visit to agent points
The country's largest mobile financial service provider bKash introduced add money service to its wallet from Visa card. The idea is to give customers relief from visiting agent points to reload account amid growing concern of corona spread.
Now, customers can add money to bKash wallets from any Visa card for free.
This Visa-to-bKash add money service wants to enable millions of customers to reload their bKash balance using Visa debit and credit cards issued by any bank of Bangladesh.
"We introduced the service to minimise customers' visit to agent points to reload their accounts amid corona crisis," said Kamal Quadir, chief executive officer of bKash.
"Limited banking activities amid lockdown in the city will hamper bKash transactions. This is because the agents will have to deposit customers' money to the bank at the end of the day. So, bKash hurriedly introduced the new money loading option last week, earlier than planned."
"The introduction of money loan from visa card will allow millions of cardholders to get bKash service from home. This new money loan option will not help the poor, but a large segment will be benefited, though."
Earlier, in March last year, bKash introduced a new service, enabling customers to transfer funds instantly from Mastercard-branded debit, credit and prepaid cards issued by banks to bKash wallets.
The growth of average daily transaction value through the mobile financial service platform saw a sharp rise of 5 percent in February from 3.58 percent in January, according to the Bangladesh Bank data.
The total daily transaction value in February was Tk1,425 crore compared to Tk1,358 crore in January.
Now, 15 banks are providing mobile financial services. The number of total registered accounts stood at 8.18 crore in February. bKash had 3 crore plus registered clients as of December 2018.