Bank Asia to launch voice recognition-enabled transaction in Dec

Bank Asia is on its way to implementing the voice recognition technology in its banking system, the first of its kind in the country, in December this year.

The announcement came at a press meet marking the 22nd anniversary of the bank on Thursday.

"We are going to introduce a voice banking service, which is unique in the country's banking industry. It will be a sound or speech recognition system that will enable customers to transact money even if they do not have an Internet connection," Bank Asia Managing Director Md Arfan Ali said at the event.

"Thus, marginal people will be brought under the banking net easily," he added.

In response to a question, he said the service will be more reliable than traditional techniques. It will ensure secure banking with the help of artificial intelligence.

Apart from Bangla and English, the voice recognition system will also be able to recognise the local dialects of Noakhali, Sylhet and Chattogram.

Md Arfan Ali said, "We are already experienced in finger print based banking, and we began a trial run of voice recognition banking from 26 March. We are supposed to launch the service fully from 26 December this year. Initially, customers will be able to transfer up to Tk5,000 in a single transaction."

Referring to the bank's remarkable achievements in agent banking, the Bank Asia managing director said, "We have the largest agent banking network throughout the country. We are now focusing more on SMEs [small and medium enterprises] and agricultural financing to accelerate the process of financial inclusion in the country."

Currently, the corporate segment accounts for 67% of Bank Asia's total portfolio, which the bank projects bringing down to 50% by raising the SME portfolio to the same level in the next five years.

"We are not only receiving money through agent banking, but also have started lending 300-400 units of loans per day. We are expecting to raise it to at least 500 units from next January," said Md Arfan Ali.

Since launching its agent banking service in 2014, Bank Asia has established the largest agent banking network with over 4,982 outlets opened across the country till March this year.

Bank Asia has the highest number of agent banking accounts – around 40 lakh – as of March this year. The bank has a 50% share of the total 51 lakh agent banking accounts held by women in the country, according to data from Bangladesh Bank.

Md Arfan Ali said, "As the fifth largest remittance receiver bank, recently we have collected $1.5 billion in remittance. Remittance distribution through the agent banking network is increasing day by day. In future customers will receive remittances at their doorsteps."

He said Bank Asia is set to build the largest banking network, both locally and globally, through the introduction of post office banking by engaging postal outlets across the country.

In the local networking part, the bank will provide financial services through 8,500 digital post offices across the country by appointing digital post office entrepreneurs under an agreement with the Bangladesh Post Office.

Besides, Bank Asia will be the first Bangladeshi bank to get connected with Eurogiro, an open payment platform. Under the agreement with Eurogiro, the bank will engage all of its postal outlets with the global payment platform to provide remittance services.

Apart from this, the bank plans to introduce a cross border postal payment app, which obtained recognition from Bangladesh Bank recently.

Bank Asia Chief Operating Officer Mohammad Borhanuddin, Deputy Managing Directors Md Sazzad Hosain, Mohammad Ziaul Hasan Molla, Safiuzzaman, SM Iqbal Hossain, Alamgir Hossain and Adil Chowdhury were also present at the press meet.

Bank Asia's performance

As per its financial statement at the end of September, Bank Asia had a total deposit of TK29,966 crore, and disbursed loans amounting to Tk25,110 crore, among which classified loans were to the tune of Tk1,171 crore.

The current price of Bank Asia's share is Tk20. In the last two years the bank announced Tk10 dividend per share.

At the end of September this year, the bank's profit stood at Tk274 crore, which was TK229 core in September 2020.