Bangladesh Bank on Monday said that scheduled banks would be able to operate their agent banking in municipal areas besides in the rural areas.
To this end, the BB issued a circular to managing directors and chief executive officers of all banks saying that they (banks) could not operate their agent banking in the metropolitan and city corporation areas.
The BB had earlier said that the banks had to operate their agent banking in the rural areas.
Under the agent banking, a bank appoints any individual or NGO or microfinance institution as its agent for providing limited-scale banking services, especially to the poor people.
Non-governmental organisations or microfinance institutions regulated by the Microcredit Regulatory Authority of Bangladesh will be able to play as an agent of a bank.
On behalf of the banks, the agents can transact cash, distribute remittance, gather information for bank accounts, accept loan applications, transact and recover loans and receive applications for credit and debit cards.
Bank agents can also receive utility bills and passport fees and distribute government assistance under social safety net programmes.
Bangladesh Bank gave permission to two banks on May 29 to provide agent-banking services. The banks are Bank Asia and NRB Bank.