‘Competition Commission to make mobile banking competitive’

Bangladesh Competition Commission Chairperson Md Mofizul Islam has said they will make the mobile banking sector competitive and ensure that monopoly of any organisation does not harm customers.

“There was competition among 10 companies in the mobile banking sector. But we did a survey and found that a single company holds 80 per cent of the market share. The commission will work on to make the sector competitive,” he said at a discussion organised by the Bangladesh Mobile Phone Consumers’ Association at the Dhaka Reporters Unity Sagar-Runi auditorium on Saturday.

Islam said the commission would also look into service charges so that the people could afford them. But the Bangladesh Bank and the finance ministry need to play a leading role in this regard as they are the regulators in this sector.

Speaking as chief guest at the event, he noted that the Competition Act was enacted in 2012, but the commission had started working last year and admitted that they had manpower shortage.

Mohiuddin Ahmed, president of Bangladesh Mobile Phone Consumers’ Association, accused mobile financial service provider ‘bKash’ of “arbitrarily controlling the service charges by doing monopoly business and occupying 80 per cent of the market”.

“There is no alternative to creating market competition for reducing service charges to benefit marginalised people,” he said.

Responding to a question, Islam told The Business Post that if someone abuses his dominant position and does not allow anyone else to enter the market or does anything to make another entity’s business fail, they will be penalised under the Competition Act.

The commission will be able to impose a fine not exceeding of 1-10 per cent of the average turnover of that organisation for the last three years.

Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission Vice-Chairman Subrata Roy Maitra, attending the event as a special guest, said they only provide network transmission services in the mobile banking sector. The BTRC is working to address security issues.

SM Nazer Hossain, vice-president of the Consumers Association of Bangladesh, said the mobile banking sector would go the e-commerce way if discipline was not restored quickly.

“The Competition Commission has a role in bringing competition to the market by reducing service charges and keeping other smaller companies competitive,” he said.