Bank accounts with over Tk1cr rise by 246 in Q1

At a time when the common people of the country are reeling under the pressure of high inflation, the number of bank accounts with deposits of Tk 1 crore or above stood at 1,10,192 at the end of the first quarter (January-March’23) of this year, up by 246 compared to the previous quarter (October-December’22).

The amount of money deposited in such accounts increased by Tk 13,272.44 crore to Tk 6,90,877.50 crore in the first quarter of this year compared to the same period of the previous quarter.

Year-on-year comparison shows that at the end of March this year, the number of accounts with deposits of Tk 1 crore or above increased by 6,595 and the amount of money deposited in such accounts increased by Tk 27,372.28 crore.

The data were obtained from “Quarterly Schedule Bank Statistics” report published by Bangladesh Bank on Tuesday. The report showed that account-holders having Tk 1 crore or above deposited almost half or 42.83 per cent of the total bank deposits.

At the end of March this year, total deposits in banks were Tk 16,13,062.64 crore.

The central bank did not disclose the number of individual accounts separately having Tk 1 crore or more. The report contains information on both public and private accounts. Among them, the number of private sector accounts is higher than public accounts.

The number of public accounts was 10,252 and the amount of money deposited in these accounts was Tk 81,166 crore. On the other hand, the number of private accounts was 83,854 and the amount of money deposited in such accounts was Tk 4,46,014 crore.

Shah Md. Ahsan Habib, Director (training) at Bangladesh Institute of Bank Management, told The Business Post that the number of private accounts is higher than public accounts as the number of companies is increasing. “Cashless transactions are also increasing at institutional level. As a result, the number of accounts is also rising.”

In reply to a query, he said since Bangladesh Bank does not provide information about individual accounts of Tk 1 crore, it cannot be said how many millionaires are there in the country. “Again it is very difficult to figure out because one person can have multiple accounts.”