Years back, people were extremely dependent on post offices to send money to their near and dear ones through 'money order'. But the money used to take a week or more to reach the recipients. Despite having emergency, people were required to wait in queues in banks either to withdraw or deposit money,
The same happened in the case of payment of utility bills. Now the situation has changed to a great extent. One can easily do all these things easily. Anyone can send money using his/her mobile phone. People can also do their banking online through the mobile phones,
This has happened mainly because of a vast expansion of mobile network and access to internet facilities and a steep rise in the users of mobile-phones and ICT
Digital banking does not only mean online banking, internet banking, mobile banking or paperless banking, but it is also the applications of new technologies to transform the existing banking business model into
The digital banking is a model that
Keeping these in view, banks and other financial institutions are gradually switching over to
Among the digital banking and financial services, mobile banking has made a phenomenal growth over the years both in terms of volume of transactions and number of clients. At present, mobile banking services provided by banks or other financial institutions allow its customers to carry out a range of financial transactions remotely through using mobile devices.
According to the central bank data, some 17 banks are providing mobile financial services. The number of clients has now stood at 7.59 million in June 2017, of them 53.7 million were registered ones. Besides, the volume of average transactions through mobile banking is estimated at Tk 10 billion per day with the number of average transactions reaching 6.0 million per day.
Among others, cash transactions, person to person (P2P) transactions, salary disbursements, utility bill payments, payments
On the other hand, the use of plastic money - credit and debit cards -has been on the rise in the country. Currently, around 9.0 million debit cards and nearly 1.0 million credit cards are in use in the country. The monthly transitions through debit cards are estimated at Tk100 billion and that of nearly Tk 7.50 billion through debit cards, data from banking sectors suggest.
There has been a growing use of plastic money (cards) for shopping purposes and also for making payment for other products and services like
Apart from the rapid growth of mobile financial transactions and use of plastic money,
But, despite having a rapid growth, the digital banking or financial transactions has some challenges also. Fraudulence, heists, hackings, cyber attacks, acts of illicit fund transfers and terror-financing are among the major challenges or threats.
The world's biggest cyber theft occurred in 2015, through which hackers stole Bangladesh Bank's reserve fund kept with Federal Reserve Bank in New York in 2015 can be cited as an example. Moreover, a series of heist incidents also took place at different automated teller machine (ATM) booths in Dhaka through using counterfeit plastic money (cards) more than a year back.
Apart from such heists, incidents of frauds,
A study reveals that ransomware -- a type of malicious software that block access to the users in to their system or computers -- attacks that took place across the world had
Apart from the oversight and regulatory aspects, many banks, financial
According to a study
Another study of the BIBM has revealed that around 70 per cent employees of banks and financial institutions are not aware of cyber security or threats. Moreover, about 26 per cent of banks
Considering the overall situation, one can suggest that apart from having time-bound policies and regulatory frameworks, there is an urgent need for strengthening the oversight and capacity of authorities and service providers concerned to deal with ever-growing digital banking and mobile-based financial transactions in the country.
Development of skilled manpower through conducting necessary training
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