Digitising core banking services and promoting mobile banking can play a significant role in financial inclusion of the people staying outside the coverage of formal banking, said Bangladesh Bank (BB) Deputy Governor Ahmed Jamal on Sunday.
He said the central bank has long been focusing on full digitisation of banking operation to establish a viable, dynamic and efficient financial infrastructure to ensure financial stability.
The deputy governor said these as the chief guest at the concluding session of the two-day Annual Banking Conference (ABC)-2022 organised by Bangladesh Institute of Bank Management (BIBM) at its auditorium in the city's Mirpur.
BIBM Professor (Selection Grade) Dr Prashanta K Banerjee gave welcome speech at the session while BIBM Director General Dr Md Akhtaruzzaman and ABC-2022 Organising Commi-ttee Chairman Professor Dr Shah Md Ahsan Habib also spoke.
Mr Jamal said as part of the financial inclusion, BB has been promoting mobile financial services (MFSs) which will certainly bring unprecedented change in the area of financial inclusion.
Such efforts of bringing more people under the formal banking channel will lead the nation to achieve the sustainable development goal and economic freedom, he said.
He also noted that the central bank has promoted the establishment of environmentally-benign projects like renewable energy generation, application of energy-efficient technologies, and installation of effluent-treatment plants etc for a sustainable future of the country.
In addition to the mainstream central banking activities, BB also initiated a comprehensive financial inclusion campaign to ensure the availability of banking services to the un-served and under-served population segments through various support services, he mentioned.
He hoped that the papers presented in the BIBM conference by academicians, central bankers and practicing bankers will help identify many critical issues and challenges confronting the banking industry of Bangladesh.
Earlier, in a plenary session, presenting findings of a paper titled "How does the Covid-19 CMSME Stimulus Package Perform in Bangladesh?" Md Al-Amin Parvez, assistant director at Chief Economist's Unit of Bangladesh Bank, said about 77 per cent of the stimulus fund was disbursed to some 96,000 small entrepreneurs till June, 2021 in the first phase of Tk200 billion stimulus package while the second phase of another Tk200 billion is still going on.
In the study, he observed that the SMEs are least successful in availing stimulus packages compared to larger counterparts and the barriers to access to stimulus packages need to be identified to solve the problem.
Citing existing surveys, Mr Parvez also said that micro and small firms received 18.4 per cent of stimulus package provided by the government to address the adverse impact of the pandemic while 42.3 per cent funds went to medium enterprises.
In another paper titled "Study of Climate Change Impacts on Sustainability of Banks", Dr Leena Mahesh Gadkari, associate professor at Thakur Institute of Management Studies and Research, India, emphasised proper assessment of climate change effects on a sector before channelling finance to it.
Carrying out a survey on different Indian financial institutions, she said banks and financial institutions need to check how the climate related disasters can affect their businesses.
They should also review risk assessment models while lending and analyse whether any additional capital is required to be held to mitigate the ill effects of such disasters, she said.
Besides, she suggested providing better insurance coverage to agricultural funding as the sector is more vulnerable to frequent natural disasters.
A total of 30 papers were presented at the ABC by banking and financial sector professionals from host Bangladesh, India and Nepal.
The BIBM handed over crests and certificates to the paper presenters and researchers at the concluding ceremony.
Besides, based on Central Bank's "Sustainability Rating 2021", BIBM and GIZ jointly honoured 10 banks and five non-banking financial institutions (NBFIs) for their better rating.
The ten banks are -- Bank Asia, BRAC Bank, Dutch-Bangla Bank, Eastern Bank, EXIM Bank, Islami Bank Bangladesh, NRB Bank, Pubali Bank, Southeast Bank, and City Bank.
The NBFIs are -- Agrani SME Financing Company Limited, Bangladesh Finance and Investment Co. Ltd, Bangladesh Infrastructure Finance Fund Limited (BIFFL), IDLC Finance, and IPDC Finance.
adnan.hossain3017@gmail.com