Transactions double since last year

Internet banking is growing increasingly popular, with transactions more than doubling since last year, according to the latest figures published by the Bangladesh Bank (BB).

The data released on Thursday showed the transactions grew 2.23 times (123 per cent) to Tk 23,141 crore in March, up from Tk 10,371 crore last year.

Besides, the transactions increased by over 30 per cent in March compared to last month. According to industry insiders, the use of internet banking has increased dramatically since the Covid outbreak.

As such, banks continue to improve digital banking services as the clients become more and more inclined to avail banking services online.

A Y M Mostafa, chief technology officer of Prime Bank told The Business Post that, many banks introduced internet banking services during the pandemic as people increasingly embraced the digital mode while opting not to visit branches. “Meanwhile, banks that already offered online services improved it, pushing up the number of clients and transactions,” he said.

According to central bank data, the number of internet banking clients climbed by 13.54 lakh in the last year.

In March 2022, there were 48.26 lakh internet banking clients, up from 34.72 lakh in March 2021. Although the number of internet banking clients has increased, this number is very insignificant compared to the total number of internet users.

As of March this year, the total number of internet users in the country stood at 12.49 crore, which means that only around four out of every 100 internet users used online banking.

In this regard, Mostafa said that a large number of the bank’s clients are senior citizens who are unfamiliar with digital services.

“With that said, the number of young clients who are enthused about using digital services is also increasing daily. So, the number of online banking users is likely to grow in future,” he added. Clients can now use internet banking services to transfer up to Tk5 lakh per day in personal transactions and per transaction, a maximum of Tk 1 lakh can be sent. In a single day, a maximum of 10 transactions can be completed.

Furthermore, a company can send up to Tk10 lakh per day from one bank to another in an institutional transaction, where the maximum transaction limit is Tk 2 lakh with a maximum of 20 transactions per day.