Transactions through digital forms, such as mobile financial services (MFS), credit cards and card-based transactions abroad, declined slightly in November, compared to October last year.
According to latest Bangladesh Bank data, MFS transactions declined by 0.76 per cent to Tk 1,19,669 crore, credit card transactions dropped by 4.08 per cent to Tk 2,748 crore, and card-based transactions overseas went down by 1.72 per cent to Tk 798 crore in November last year.
In October, Tk 1,20,596 crore was transacted through MFS, while credit card transactions amounted to Tk 2,865 crore, and foreign transactions in cards were at Tk 812 crore. Industry insiders say overall transactions decreased mostly due to the high inflation in the country.
Speaking to The Business Post, Policy Research Institute of Bangladesh (PRI) Executive Director Ahsan H Mansur, “The purchasing power of consumers has decreased in recent times, so the amount of transactions slipped slightly in November compared to the previous year.
“But it could rise in December, because during the month people purchase winter items and organise wedding ceremonies.”
It should be noted that the amount of transactions increase during Eid-ul-Fitr celebrations.
MFS data are compiled considering both Nagad and MFS through scheduled banks (Bkash, Rocket, Upay and SureCash).
The MFS industry started its journey in Bangladesh back in 2011 with the launch of Rocket, which is a service of Dutch-Bangla Bank (DBBL). At present, 13 MFS operators are providing MFS services with bKash, Nagad, ROCKET, UPAY, mCash and SureCash as major market players.
On condition of anonymity, a central bank senior official said the amount of foreign transactions increased due to the USD crisis in the country. But, the USD price is lower in credit cards than in cash. As a result, people’s tendency to use credit cards has gone up.
