The 2nd Indian Ocean/ South Asia Mobile Payments & Banking Summit 2013 will convene at Dhaka, Bangladesh from January 30 – 31, 2013. This is an important summit for all who wants to capitalise on the wave of mobile payments and banking opportunities in the developing economies of Indian Ocean/ South Asia region, says a press release.

In Bangladesh, only 13 per cent of the population has bank accounts but the country has country-wide mobile coverage with 56 per cent of the people with mobile phones.

The relatively low banking penetration rate can be attributed to the generally low income, underdeveloped banking infrastructure, high cost of traditional banking products, distance to bank and paper work required to set up bank accounts.

The adoption of mobile banking and payments is key to financial inclusion.  According to a research by Juniper Research, global m-banking transactions will reach $ 670 billion by 2015.

The US-based Yankee Group projects $ 545 billion in payments by the same year.
Mobile solutions have taken off and we will see its continual growth as mobile phone penetration continue to increase.
Focusing on India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan, this summit will bring together key stakeholders to provide an outlook and forecast on the South Asia mobile financial services and market opportunities.

The Summit will address the policies and regulations involved in the deployment of mobile solutions, microfinance credit models, bank-led models, value added service (VAS) promotion and adoption, mobile money transfer, social media payments, mobile phones’ supply chain management, leveraging on mobile platform to deliver government services, customers’ behavior on mobile payments, role of QR Codes in mobile money, mobile money agents, retails merchants and mobile money, security issues in mobile payments and m-commerce.

Speakers at the summit include Bangladesh Tele-communication Regulatory Commission, Bangladesh Bank, Central Bank of Sri Lanka, Pakistan Tele-communication Authority, Da Afghanistan Bank, Telenor Pakistan, Etisalat Lanka, Association of Mobile Telecom Operators’
of Bangladesh, Orascom Telecom Bangladesh, Indian Banks’ Association, Dutch Bangla Bank and more.

Omar Moeen Malik the Director (Strategy), easypaisa from Telenor Pakistan said, “With Mobile Financial Services really taking up in emerging markets and especially our region, I am really excited and look forward to attending the 2nd Indian Ocean / South Asia Mobile Payments & Banking Summit.

I would be happy to share some of the success stories from easypaisa in Pakistan, and I look forward to
meeting with conference members from other countries and learn more about their deployments and services launched”.

Zakiul Islam, Senior Director, Regulatory Affairs from Orascom Telecom Bangladesh said, “Dream and desire creates Innovation, and innovation turns for betterment of scalable mass when awareness and clarity is created among different entities in the ecosystem. Such initiative, workshop, seminars and interaction will help to create customer awareness and clarity among regulators to encourage innovation for Scalable Mobile Financial Services”.

mChek Bangladesh which provides a patent-pending, general purpose, mobile based secure authentication, authorisation, notification and payments solution is the summit’s Platinum Sponsor.

Commenting on the Summit, Ms Maggie Tan, CEO of Magenta Global said” This is a significant event to increase mobile payments developments in emerging countries.

The Summit gathers stakeholders from the wireless service providers, handsets manufacturers, banks and financial institutions to deliver innovative solutions to consumers and structuring partnerships to offer financial inclusion and generate growth in this emerging sector”. The summit will be held at The Westin Dhaka.

News: The Daily Independent/Bangladesh/14th-Dec-12

The central bank has expedited its operations to mop up excess fund from the market using different monetary instruments for curbing inflationary pressure on the economy, officials said.

As part of the moves, the Bangladesh Bank (BB) Wednesday slashed assured liquidity support (ALS) for both primary dealer (PD) and non-PD banks, bypassing its previous directive.

Under the existing provisions, the PD and non-PD banks are allowed to enjoy liquidity support against both success and devolved securities for a maximum of two and a half months at a stretch from the date of issuance of government-approved securities.

"We've cut the ALS support slightly to withdraw excess liquidity from the market. But we have provided special repurchase agreement (repo) facility to both the PD and non-PD banks on the same day for complying with cash reserve requirement (CRR) of the central bank," a BB senior official told the FE.

He also said the central bank is using various monetary instruments in line with its latest monetary policy statement (MPS) to contain inflationary pressure on the economy.

On July 18, the BB unveiled its new half-yearly MPS, aiming to curb inflation further while ensuring adequate credit flow to the private sector for achieving 'inclusive' economic growth.

Both the PD and non-PD banks submitted requisition seeking Tk 14.57 billion as special repo in the late hours on the day to comply with the BB's CRR.

The central bank, however, accepted the special repo amounting to around Tk 9.0 billion, a PD said, adding that at least three private commercial banks may not be able to comply with the CRR.

Besides, the central bank is going to cut the tenure of ALS by 15 days - from the existing 75 days to 60 days, another BB official said.

"We're using the monetary tools to decrease the amount of reserve money (RM)," the central banker said.

News: The Daily Financial Express/Bangladesh/13th-Dec-12

Bangladesh Bank (BB) has sought support from mayors of municipalities across the country as part of its fresh move to identify small and medium entrepreneurs. “We’ve sent letter to mayors of municipalities Tuesday across the country requesting them to inform us about the real small entrepreneurs and industry cluster as the central bank is giving such entrepreneurs many incentives including advices and credit facilities,” said a central bank official.

Many small and medium entrepreneurs can easily take loan from banks but a good number of such entrepreneurs, especially those living in rural areas, are not availing this opportunity due to lack of information, the BB official added.

Earlier, the central bank sent letters to cambers and deputy commissioners across the country seeking their support about the small entrepreneurs.

Besides, the BB sent SMS (short message service) to subscribers of private cell-phone operators Grameen Phone and Airtel to inform them about the availability of bank loan for medium and small enterprise (SME).

“Entrepreneurs of the SME sector, especially those living in rural areas, borrow money at higher interest rate from rural lenders but banks are ready to give them loan with low interest.

We want to inform them about it,” said Sokomal Singha Chowdhury, general manager of the SME and Specialised Programmes Department.
“We’ll send letter to union parishad chairmen across the country seeking their support about it,” he added.

News: The Daily Independent/Bangladesh/13th-Dec-12

 Bangladesh Bank (BB) has sought support from mayors of municipalities across the country as part of its fresh move to identify small and medium entrepreneurs.

“We’ve sent letter to mayors of municipalities Tuesday across the country requesting them to inform us about the real small entrepreneurs and industry cluster as the central bank is giving such entrepreneurs many incentives including advices and credit facilities,” said a central bank official.

Many small and medium entrepreneurs can easily take loan from banks but a good number of such entrepreneurs, especially those living in rural areas, are not availing this opportunity due to lack of information, the BB official added.

Earlier, the central bank sent letters to cambers and deputy commissioners across the country seeking their support about the small entrepreneurs.

News: The Daily Sun/Bangladesh/13th-Dec-12

The state-owned Agrani Bank Ltd is borrowing from money market to operate its financial activities as it faces a moderate shortage in liquidity.

According to the central bank’s data, Agrani Bank Wednesday borrowed Tk 11.74 billion, the highest amount for a single bank in a day.

Another state-owned Sonali Bank borrowed Tk. 3.80 billion on the day. But the other state-run Janata Bank and Rupali Bank lent Tk 2.75 billion and Tk. 6.05 billion respectively as they have slightly surplus liquidity.

Bangladesh Bank figures showed that the call money rate for overnight borrowing, however, remained stable for past few months.

As of 12th this month, the highest lending rate reached 10 percent while the lowest rate was 7.05 percent, which implies that the lending rate on an average was 8.35 percent.

Among the private banks, Prime Bank Ltd borrowed highest amount of Tk 10.62 billion Wednesday, followed by Mercantile Bank’s Tk 6.09 billion and Eastern Bank’s Tk 4.95 billion.

The private banks that lent money were Trust Bank Ltd Tk 11 billion, United Commercial Bank Tk 9.89 billion and City Bank Tk. 6.90 billion.

A number of 18 financial institutions (FIs) borrowed from money market with Investment Corporation of Bangladesh (ICB) borrowing the highest amount of Tk. 3.85 billion, showed BB data.

News: The Daily Sun/Bangladesh/13th-Dec-12