Bangladesh Bank Governor Atiur Rahman, ICT Secretary NI Khan, BTRC Chairman Zia Ahmed and Airtel Bangladesh CEO Chris Tobit attend the launch of mobile banking service of Airtel in partnership with Dutch-Bangla Bank, at Uttarkhan in Dhaka yesterday.

Airtel Bangladesh yesterday launched mobile banking services for its subscribers.

The mobile operator is going to offer multiple services such as cash deposit and withdrawal, sending money, mobile top-up, remittance collection and salary disbursement, said a statement.

The new service was launched in partnership with Dutch-Bangla Bank Ltd and was inaugurated by Bangladesh Bank Governor Atiur Rahman on the premises of Union Information Service Centre (UISC) at Uttarkhan in Dhaka.

UISC is an ICT-enabled one-stop service outlet located at all Union Parishads across the country, where young entrepreneurs are supported by the government to offer various public and private services.

According to the statement, 9002 young entrepreneurs are working at 4,501 UISCs across the country. Airtel and DBBL will work together to make mobile banking available on most of the UISC premises.

Rahman said the service would go a long way in making financial transactions accessible even for the unbanked population across the remotest corners of Bangladesh.

ICT Secretary NI Khan and Chairman of Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission Zia Ahmed were also present.

Chris Tobit, chief executive officer of Airtel, said the operator foresees a range of additional services in conjunction to mobile banking in near future.

Sayem Ahmed, chairman of the executive committee of DBBL, K Shamshi Tabrez, managing director of the bank, and AKM Shirin, its deputy managing director, were also present.

Mobile banking is a one-stop solution, which transforms the mobile phone into a secure and convenient wallet.

It enables subscribers to obtain services such as cash deposit, cash withdrawal, foreign remittance collection, salary disbursement, scholarship and government's allowance disbursement, person-to-person transfer and so on.

In addition, Airtel also offers mobile top-up facility through mobile banking account. With the commercial launch, the service will now be available in all major districts for all Airtel subscribers.

News: Daily Star/Bangladesh/26-Aug-12