BKB, RAKUB yet to introduce the facility
The six state-owned commercial banks could bring only 61 out of their 3.69 crore client accounts under internet banking as of March 31, 2016 and the banks also lagged far behind the private and foreign commercial banks in giving online banking facility to their clients.
The SCBs are Sonali, Janata, Agrani, Rupali, BASIC and Bangladesh Development banks.
The two state-owned specialised development banks — Bangladesh Krishi Bank and Rajshahi Krishi Unnayan Bank — are yet to introduce internet banking for their account holders, Bangladesh Bank data showed.
BB officials said the state-run banks have a shortage of skilled manpower required to promote internet and online banking.
A BB official, however, told New Age on Thursday that the state-run banks did not take adequate measures to popularise internet banking among their clients.
‘The absence of the modern facility at the banks contradicts the government’s much-hyped “Digital Bangladesh” vision,’ he said.
The clients of the banks are being deprived of operating their accounts smoothly using internet, he said.
The reluctance on the part of the banks has kept a large section of bank clients out of the internet banking facility, he said.
The private and foreign commercial banks, however, have taken initiatives to further expand their internet banking services, he said.
The BB data showed 3.04 per cent, or 15.32 lakh, accounts of PCBs had access to internet banking as of March 31, 2016 against their total accounts of 3.92 crore.
The FCBs facilitated internet banking for their 1.45 lakh account holders against their total accounts of 3.90 lakh as of March 31, 2016.
The data showed 16.77 lakh accounts had access to internet banking against 7.66 crore accounts in the overall banking sector as of March 31, 2016.
The state-run banks also performed very poorly in expanding their online banking services.
The BB data showed 2,429 out of 3,710 branches of the six SCBs had introduced online banking as of March 31, 2016.
The SCBs brought 65.47 per cent of their branches under the online banking system.
The government specialised banks had promoted online banking in only 97 out of their 1,408 branches as of March 31, 2016.
The number of automated branches was 6.98 per cent of the total branches.
The BB earlier asked the scheduled banks to promote internet and online banking in the quickest possible time under the central bank’s green banking programme in a bid to save paper for reducing pressure on trees, the BB official said.
The central bank also asked the banks to introduce e-statements for customers replacing paper statements, he said.
The BB data showed that foreign commercial banks had already brought 100 per cent of their branches under online banking. The FCBs operate 75 branches in the country.
The country’s private commercial banks introduced online banking at a significant number of their branches.
They introduced the facility at 4,300 out of their 4,400 branches as of March 31, 2016. They brought 97.72 per cent of their branches under online banking
Source: New Age
