Gates praises mobile banking in BD

Bill Gates, the world's wealthiest person who founded Microsoft, highly appreciated the mobile banking in Bangladesh. Lauding mobile financial services in Bangladesh, Gates said banking on digital technology will bring financial services to the world’s poor. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), he lamented that rich people take for granted loans, insurance, banking and other financial services that poor people have little access to. Referring to bKash, the main mobile banking service in Bangladesh, he said ‘About 13 million people are getting financial services, transferring money, paying in shops as bKash exploited ubiquity of cellphones to deliver a needed service in the South Asian country.’ He also said that digital transactions can be processed at a fraction of the cost of financial services offered in the developed world. Bill Gates gave the interview to the WSJ before delivering the keynote address at Sibos, a banking-industry conference held in Boston this week, according to a news agency.