School banking receives big response with Tk 14.94 billion deposits

School banking is gradually getting huge responses from the students across the country as deposits with the banking accounts was nearly Tk 15 billion (Tk 1,494 crore) at the end of June 2019, reports BSS.
The central bank's latest quarterly report on financial inclusion shows that a total of over Tk 14.94 billion (Tk 1,494.40 crore) was deposited with 19,96,030 school banking accounts at 55 scheduled banks as of June 30 this year.
According to the report, the school banking service is gaining popular fast in the cities than in the rural areas. A total of 7,71,026 school banking accounts were opened in the cities against 12,25,004 accounts in the rural areas.
School banking is also more popular among the male students than the female students as 11,38,080 school banking accounts were opened by male students against 8,57,950 by the female ones.
"Bangladesh Bank launched the programme in November 2010 for school students to help them save up for the future, learn financial literacy at an early age and build the habit of saving," a BB official told the news agency.
Dutch-Bangla Bank, Eastern Bank Limited, Dhaka Bank, United Commercial Bank and Islami Bank Bangladesh are the five banks that pulled most of the deposits from the students.
Islami Bank opened 3,69,623 accounts, which is 18.52 per cent of the total accounts, while Dutch-Bangla Bank ranked first by collecting deposits of over Tk 4.658 billion (Tk 465.88 crore) with school banking accounts.
"As per an instruction of the central bank, Islami Bank introduced school banking so that the future generation can gain knowledge on the financial system," said Islami Bank Deputy Managing Director Abu Reza Mohammad Yeahia.