Bangladesh Bank governor Dr Fazle Kabir on Monday warned that mobile banking might become one of the biggest laundering methods in the digital world if it is not confronted through joint initiatives.“We must confront this with our joint initiatives,” he said while addressing a seminar on “Impact of Mobile Financial Services (MFS) in the Saarc Region” at Sonargaon Hotel in the city as the chief guest.Bangladesh Bank and SAARCFINANCE, a body of South Asian region, jointly organised the seminar.Researchers, bankers and professionals from both banking and telecommunication sectors of the Saarc member countries attended the seminar to discuss the current state of their MFS and update their technologies to contain the risk in this regard.Mentioning the rapid development of MFS in the region, the central bank governor said it is crucial to identify and lessen potential risks associated with the mobile banking. “The technology needs to be adopted in compliance with international standards,” he added.He also mentioned that 25 banks have so far obtained permission for MFS operation of which 18 have launched their services. There are about 39 million registered MFS customers in the country transacting around Tk 7 billion per day.In his keynote presentation, former teacher of the Department of Banking of Dhaka University Prof Dr MA Baqui Khalily said the MFS has huge potential to reach government services to the people.He noted that the government could immensely benefit if it provides subsidies to various sectors like agriculture, social safety-net programmes and allowances for disabled people through the MFS. “The MFS can reduce the leakage in this programme,” he added.Bangladesh Bank deputy governor SK Sur Chowdhury said Bangladesh has been following the bank-led MFS as it is easy to monitor any corrupt practices and catch the culprits “The main objective of the MFS is to provide financial and banking services to the people at an affordable cost.”He said the MFS has already made huge impacts on the rural people as the labourers from the urban areas are sending money to their relatives in the rural areas through mobile banking.
source:UNB
