Md Tauhidul Alam City Bank PLC is committed to enhancing its card services and customer experience by improving digital platforms and introducing innovative payment solutions, the bank's head of cards has said.
"We're also expanding our network of partner merchants to offer a wider range of benefits to our cardholders," Md Tauhidul Alam, head of cards at City Bank, said in an exclusive interview with the Financial Express (FE) recently.
He also said City Bank is focused on building long-term relationships with its customers by providing them with personalised and value-added services.
About special offers and discounts for digital payment services ahead of the upcoming Eid-ul-Fitr festival, Alam said City Bank offers various deals for its debit and credit card holders on all kinds of shopping, including groceries and new clothing during this Holy Ramadan and Eid.
"And this Eid, we have extended these offers across the country, not just limited to Dhaka, with over 500 merchants and 3,300 outlets," he explained.
The leading offers provided by City Bank in this Eid campaign include: (i) Up to 15 per cent cashback at the country's leading lifestyle and grocery outlets; (ii) Up to 50 per cent savings at over 450 retail stores, available nationwide; (iii) Up to 30 per cent savings at over 100 restaurants; (iv) Up to 25 per cent savings on various popular online merchants and food delivery services; and (v) BOGO (Buy One Get One) Iftar and dinner offers at over 40 restaurants, including fine dining at five-star hotels.
"We're pleased to see a 15 per cent increase in billing compared to last Ramadan, indicating strong customer engagement," the head of cards said while replying to a query about these offers to help generate higher billing.
He also said people usually spend a lot during these festive seasons.
City Bank has designed its Ramadan offers to cater to diverse customer needs and preferences, according to Alam.
The senior private banker advises cardholders to plan their spending and take advantage of discounts and cashback offers.
He also said cardholders should explore equal monthly instalment (EMI) options for larger purchases to manage their finances effectively.
About cross-border transactions, the head of cards said City Bank offers debit and credit cards across four major international payment schemes: American Express, Visa, Mastercard, and UnionPay.
The senior banker said cashless transactions in Bangladesh have gained significant momentum over the last few years.
"If we look at merchant payments data in the digital channel of the last five years, we see it has gone from Tk 240 billion (Tk 24,000 crore) in 2019 to Tk 1350 billion (Tk 135000 crore) in 2024, a staggering 463 per cent growth in the span of five years with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 41 per cent," the banker explained.
The central bank has already taken a series of measures to promote cashless transactions such as launching the national payment scheme TakaPay debit card, interoperable Bangla QR etc.
However, there are still many challenges to cashless transactions, such as a lack of customer trust in the digital channel, a low internet penetration rate, a bar on credit card issuance without proof of submission of return (PSR), a huge unbanked population, and a deeply ingrained culture of cash transactions, for which the non-cash payment rate is still only 4.0 per cent of total transactions, according to the head of cards.
"The biggest challenge of all is that non-cash payment is still costlier than cash payment in many cases. So, to achieve the government's goal of converting 75 per cent of total transactions into cashless by 2027, it has to incentivise digital payments just like the way it treats inward remittances," the senior banker added.
"Moreover, the government also needs to simplify the credit card issuance process as this is a significant contributor to cashless payment, and its number is only 2.6 million. For a country like ours with a population size of 170 million and a labour force of 75 million, credit card numbers should not be below 10 million," he further added.
siddique.islam@gmail.com
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