Courier service losing money transfer to mobile banking

Shah Alam Nur | Published: November 05, 2013 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2024 06:01:00

Many of the country's courier service companies are going to shut their money transfer service due to drastic fall in transaction in recent times.
In the last two years, money transfer through courier service fell by more than 95 per cent amid market dominance by mobile banking which has made the courier service difficult to run money transfer business, industry insiders said.
Many of the key companies have closed there money transfer business and others will follow the suit soon.
"A large number of courier service companies have closed money transfer service in last one year due to drastic fall in business," President of Courier Services Association of Bangladesh (CSAB) Hafizur Rahman Pulok told the FE.
Bad luck has gripped the sector with the launching of mobile banking by many mainstream banks like BRAC Bank Ltd, Dutch-Bangla Bank Limited, Islami Bank Bangladesh Limited etc that attract most of the people for money transfer, he said.
Mr Pulok, who is also vice chairman of Sundarban Courier Service (Pvt.) Ltd., said his company's money transaction has fallen by 98 per cent in just one and a half years.
He said money transaction through Sundarban with its 60 branches and 20 agency offices was Tk 6 million per day which has come down to only Tk 0.1 million now.
He said the downtrend forced his company to cut manpower or transferring them to other sections of the company.
"We have almost stopped money transfer service due to continuous fall in transaction", Gazi Mostak Ahmed, General Manager of Karatoa Courier and Parcel Service (KCPS) at Dhaka office told the FE.
He said most of the customers are availing mobile banking service, so they are passing a hard time now.
Mr Ahmed said KCPS is a mainly North Bengal based company and during the last two years money transfer fell by more then 95 per cent at their 87 branch offices.
Two years ago KCPS' transaction was more than Tk 5 million a day and now it is nearly Tk 50,000 a day, he added.
Abdus Salam, General Manager of SA Paribahan (PVT) Ltd told the FE "Now customers want door to door service but courier services could not give better service compared to that of the mobile companies".
He said for better service most customers are going for mobile banking and courier service companies are losing their business.
Mr Salam said through mobile banking any customer can transfer money from his walking distance which is not possible through the courier services.
Industry insiders said more than 70 per cent of the total population of Bangladesh lives in rural areas where access to formal financial services is very difficult.
They also said less than 15 per cent of Bangladeshis are connected to the formal banking system whereas over 68 per cent have mobile phones.
"These phones are not merely devices for talking, but can be used for more useful and sophisticated processing tasks," a Bangladesh Bank (BB) official said.
He said 38 banks have taken permission for mobile banking from BB and 18 banks have started providing mobile financial services (MFS).
The mainstream private commercial banks (PCBs) are providing services as Brac Bank's bKash, the Dutch-Bangla Bank's mobile banking, the Islami Bank's Mcash and the Prime Bank's Easy Cash etc.
The number of mobile banking accounts is about 10 million with about 0.1 million agents countrywide and around Tk 1.35 billion is being transacted every day, according to BB.
According to CSAB Currently, 42 local courier and 10 foreign companies are operating in the country of which the major companies include SA Paribahan, Continental, Sundarban, Rainbow and Koratoa courier services.