Daily transactions plunge from Tk 6.47b to Tk 1.12b

A significant decline was seen in all forms of digital banking, including internet banking, during the five-day internet outage which severely disrupted users' ability to conduct online financial transactions.
The outage led to a notable drop in the usage of digital banking services, highlighting the dependence on stable internet connectivity for the smooth operation of these services.
Following the launch of 4G internet and the Covid-19 pandemic, cashless transactions in the country increased significantly.
However, the demand of students for quota reforms in government jobs led to internet shutdowns, causing a drastic decline in digital transactions.
Within a week, internet banking transactions dropped by over 65 per cent, Bangladesh Bank data revealed.
Data analysis reveals that daily transactions averaged Tk 6.46 billion, amounting to Tk 19.39 billion in the three days from July 11 to July 13.
However, customers conducted only 104,226 transactions totalling Tk 6.74 billion from July 18 to July 23, with the daily average falling to Tk 1.12 billion.
The data indicates that the internet shutdown began on July 16 for mobile internet and extended to all internet services by 8:00PM on July 18, significantly impacting internet banking, including ATM, POS and QR code transactions. Additionally, e-commerce and other services dropped to nearly zero.
According to the BB data, from July 11 to July 13, there were 613,458 ATM transactions in 13,428 automatic tell machines (ATMs) nationwide, totalling Tk 5.06 billion, with a daily average of Tk 1.68 billion.
During the complete shutdown and curfew from July 18 to July 23, total ATM transactions amounted to Tk 3.61 billion, averaging Tk 602.3 million daily, marking a decline of 64.28 per cent.
Furthermore, from July 18 to July 23, 116,232 POS transactions were conducted, totalling Tk 235.5 million, with a daily average of Tk 47.1 million. In contrast, from July 11 to July 13, POS transactions amounted to Tk 422.7 million, with a daily average of Tk 140 million, reflecting a 66.35-percent drop in the period.
QR code transactions from July 11 to July 13 totalled Tk 93.7 million, while from July 18 to July 23 they plummeted to Tk 14 million, marking a 91-percent decrease.
AKM Fahim Mashroor, chief executive officer of Bdjobs.com, the country's largest online job search platform, stated that the country's vision of achieving a cashless economy will be hindered due to the significant disruption caused by the recent internet outage.
He noted that some banks are already using apps that function without internet connectivity, and suggested that other banks could benefit from installing such applications if they are not already using them.

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