Online banking growing faster in rural areas

The adoption of online banking in rural Bangladesh has soared thanks to the rise in the number of internet users.

Currently, every bank branch in Bangladesh offers online services allowing the customers to enjoy the services provided by a bank without physically visiting any branch.

At present, out of the 11,233 fully online banking branches in Bangladesh, 47 percent are in rural areas and 53 percent urban.

As of September of 2023, some 5,300 fully online banking branches were in rural areas where as 5,933 in urban.

However, the scenario was quite different in 2019 when there were only 3,809 fully online banking branches in rural areas against 5,145 in urban.

The data clearly indicates that online banking branches grew faster in rural areas than urban.

In a period between 2019 and 2023, online banking branches in urban areas grew by 15.31 percent whereas the growth was 39.11 percent in case of rural areas.

From 2019 to 2023, the fully online banking branches witnessed a whopping 6.8 percent compound annual growth in rural areas while the rate was 2.9 percent in urban areas, according to the Bangladesh Bank data.

The lockdown after the emergence of the coronavirus pandemic encouraged more people to embrace the new form of banking, according to the analysts.

Since people had fewer options for carrying out their transactions offline, they chose online banking services, which also pushed banks to expand their online banking operations.

"Brac Bank was one of the first banks to react to the coronavirus status quo. The development of the online app was one of the reasons for the surge in the transaction volume in SMEs in rural areas," said Md Mahiul Islam, head of retail banking at Brac Bank.

"High investment in technology by the top tier banks in post-covid period along with the recent policy initiatives by the central bank has played a pivotal role behind the adoption of online banking in rural areas," said Mahmud Hasan, vice president and regional head of small and microfinance business at City Bank.

The spike in internet users in rural areas also played a substantial role on the expansion of online banking.

Now, 29.7 percent of the households in rural areas have internet access at home, according to a survey report by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics.

"A few years back, I never dreamt of doing any banking transactions online. I had to travel six kilometres from my village just to deposit a cheque," said Billal Gazi, a business owner in Khulna.

"But now I can do any transactions with just a simple tap on my phone."