Tuesday 24 February 2015

Dutch-Bangla Bank Mobile Banking - Banking for the unbanked



Dutch-Bangla Bank Mobile Banking
Banking for the unbanked

(Figures for the year - 2014)
 Introduction:

Traditional understanding of bankers has revolved around the presumption that banking service (general banking) delivery is dependent on its physical presence- a processing center, a bank branch and a cash counter. Today, this is not the case. Following the DBBL’s journey towards unpaved road of Financial Inclusion, many banks are now embracing mobile banking program in order to replace the traditional bricks-and-mortar branches.

DBBL the leader of technology driven innovative banking in Bangladesh had understood that financial inclusion will not happen on its own. Therefore, the onus has come on to the Banks to provide the same and it was Dutch-Bangla Bank who came forward to bell the cat.

Dutch-Bangla Bank is the first Bank in Bangladesh to start Mobile Banking on 31 March, 2011. DBBL mobile Banking become very popular name all over the country in last few years specially to the common peoples who value security and trust.

During the year 2014 we have achieved a remarkable growth in agent expansion and customer acquisition compare to previous years by re-engineering the delivery channel and service modality. During this year DBBL has consolidated our Mobile Banking Offices from Upazilla to District level, and increased number of Super Agents and established the distribution facilities at Upazilla/Thana level to ensure the better services.

Product & Price Review:

Dutch-Bangla Bank is always very responsive to the customers’ expectation and market demand. As a part of product innovation DBBL has brought numbers of facilities which are very new in the MFS (Mobile Financial Services) industry.

To facilitate all level of Customers DBBL has reduced cash-in and Cash-out service charge from 1% to 0.9% which is the lowest in the market. Moreover, DBBL has withdrawn the balance inquiry charges and reduced the P2P (Personal to Person Fund Transfer) charges from Tk.10.00 to Tk.5.00.

To bring the DBBL Mobile Banking services to the easy reach of the unbanked segment, DBBL has also reduced the minimum deposit requirement for account opening from BDT 100.00 to BDT 25.00.

To address the untapped and unprivileged market, a total number of 751 employees, 77 MB Offices and 110,866 agent points are continuously working together to meet all part of customer requirements. Moreover, 145 DBBL Branches, 4000 Merchants and 2700+ ATMs and partners banks’ branches are also working as mobile banking access channel for the customers.


Mobile Banking Product & Services:

DBBL Mobile Banking has launched following Product & Services since inception to to-date:

Customer registration:

New customers can open a mobile account from any DBBL agent point, DBBL Fast Track, DBBL branch, BKB branch, RAKUB branch, Union Information Service Centers, and from retail points of any Mobile Operator. Customer needs to submit his/her photograph & National ID (NID) to open an account. The minimum deposit required to open an account is only Tk.25/- only. In the year 2014, more than 1.7 million new customers have been registered for DBBL mobile banking.

Cash-in (Cash Deposit):

Customer can cash-in (deposit) at any DBBL agent point, DBBL Fast Track, DBBL branch, BKB branch, RAKUB branch, Union Information Service Centers, and at retail points of any Mobile Operator. The Cash-in fee at agent/retail point is 0.9%, at branch is Tk.10/- and at Fast Track is free. In the year 2014, mobile banking customers have deposited a total of Taka 96 billion at agent points and branches.

Cash-Out (Cash withdrawal):

Customer can cash-out (withdraw money) from any DBBL agent point, DBBL ATM, DBBL Fast Track, DBBL branch, BKB branch, RAKUB branch, Union Information Service Centers, and from retail points of any Mobile Operator. The Cash-in fee at agent/retail point is 0.9%, at branch is Tk.10/- and at ATM and Fast Track is free. In the year 2014, mobile banking customers have deposited a total of Taka 75 billion at agent points, ATMs and branches.

Foreign Remittance:

Remitter can send remittance from any nominated Exchange Houses of Dutch-Bangla Bank and other Bangladeshi Banks located all over the world. The remitted money will be transferred to the beneficiary's Mobile Account within 24-72 hours (in case of DBBL Exchange House-24 hours) and the beneficiary will immediately receive an SMS about the deposit.

Then the beneficiary can go to any DBBL agent point, DBBL ATM, DBBL Fast Track, DBBL branch, BKB branch, RAKUB branch, Union Information Service Centers, and from retail points of any Mobile Operator and cash-out the required amount of money. There is no fee for receiving the remittance in the account, but the Cash-out fee is applicable for withdrawal of money.

The DBBL mobile banking customers have received a total of Taka 325 million as remittance from their respective remitters worldwide.

Salary/Allowance Disbursement:

Dutch-Bangla Bank has devised a low cost solution for salary disbursement. Under this solution, Corporate Offices can disburse the salary of their employees, and Government can disburse different allowances like elderly allowance, freedom fighter allowance etc. to the people within a few moment in a hassle free way.

In the process, the Corporate Office/Government sends a list of mobile account numbers and amount of monthly salary/allowance to DBBL. DBBL credits all the individual accounts as per the list by debiting corporate account centrally by a batch process system. The respective employee/beneficiary gets an SMS regarding the salary disbursement.

Thereafter, the employee/beneficiary can then go to any agent or DBBL ATM or DBBL Branch to withdraw money. There is no fee for receiving the salary in the account, but the Cash-out fee is applicable for withdrawal of money.

In the year 2014, Dutch-Bangla Bank has disbursed salary and allowances of around Taka 6.00 billion to the employees of 173 government and private organizations.

Air time Top-up:

DBBL mobile account holder can top-up/recharge their own or other’s mobile debiting money from his/her Account. They don’t need to go to a retailer for such services – they can recharge their or other’s mobile from their home, office of vehicle. There is no fee for top-up/recharge service.

In the year 2014, DBBL mobile banking customers have made more than 40 million airtime-topups (recharge transactions) for an amount of Taka 991 million.

Person to Person Fund Transfer (P2P):

The money transfer from one mobile account to another mobile account is called P2P transfer. Dutch-Bangla Bank’s mobile banking customers can perform P2P transactions sitting at their home, office or vehicle. The fee per transaction is Tk.5/- only.

In the year 2014, DBBL mobile banking customers have made more than 1.5 million P2P transactions for an amount of Taka 4.3 billion.

Bills Payment:

The mobile banking customers can use the Bills Payment module of the mobile banking and pay utility bills, tuition fee for various schools, colleges and universities by debiting their respective mobile banking accounts.

In the year 2014, DBBL mobile banking customers have paid utility bills for an amount of Taka 358 million using the system.

Merchant Payment:

Merchant payment is one of the important mobile banking products to boost financial inclusion. Using this product, the customers can pay their bills against purchase of goods and services in the shops. There are around 4,000 shops all over the country where mobile payment is accepted. Apart from individual merchant, in the year of 2014, DBBL has acquired some institutional merchants who have multiple branches like Swapno, Infinity, Lubnan, the daily Prothom Alo, One to 99 Corner Ltd., and Nadia Furniture.

In the year 2014, DBBL mobile banking customers have paid their shopping bills for an amount of Taka 20.0 million.

ATM Withdrawal:

Dutch-Bangla Bank has installed more than 2,700 ATMs all over the country which are accessible to the cardholders of DBBL and other banks. DBBL has launched cardless ATM transactions for its mobile banking customers. Thus the mobile banking customers of DBBL can withdraw money from an ATM using his/her mobile phone. This service has become very popular among the mobile banking customers. There is no fee for ATM transaction.

In the year 2014, DBBL mobile banking customers have withdrawn an amount of more than Taka 23.0 billion from the ATMs.

Balance and Statement Inquiry:

The mobile banking customers can check their account balance and get a mini statement in his/her mobile through sms. The balance inquiry is fee, but customer needs to pay a fee of Tk.3/- for statement inquiry.

In the year 2014, DBBL mobile banking customers have made a total of 30 millions of balance inquiry and 440 millions of statement inquiry.

New services launched in 2014:

Linkage between Core Banking System (CBS) & Mobile Banking System (MBS):

Dutch-Bangla Bank has launched the linkage facility to connect mobile banking with the core banking. After registration for this service, the mobile banking customers are able to pull and push fund from his core banking account. This CBS & MBS linkage facility is a unique feature of DBBL Mobile banking which gives freedom of Banking to the customer at anywhere, anytime.

Most of the mobile banking customers pull money from their savings account in core banking and either recharge mobile phone or withdraw money from ATM without a Card. This has eliminated the need of going to a retailer point for mobile recharge or carrying a debit card.

Payment Collection:

DBBL Mobile Banking has introduced Payment collection module to collect payment automatically from target sub-base within a few moments in a hassle-free way.

By using the payment collection module, customers can pay their Utility Bill, Insurance Premium, Admission, Registration, Tuition, Semester, Convocation, Subscription for Re-union, Training, Workshop or any other fee in a hassle free manner. DBBL’s payment collection service reduces end consumer’s time, increases convenience which allows paying fees on time to avoid extra change.

The payment collection module has been used to collect payment & fee of IBA of Jahangirnagar University, Naogaon Govt. College of Rajshahi, Department of Computer Science & Engineering of Jahangirnagar University, Department of IIT of Jahangirnagar University, Bangladesh Agricultural University in Mymensingh, Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University in Dhaka, Sylhet Agricultural University, and Sylhet Engineering College.

Induction& expansion of service delivery channel - Super Agent:

DBBL started Mobile Banking operation in 2011 with the support of Telecom operators and deployment of Agent all over the country. In the last quarter of year 2013, DBBL has introduced Super Agents (Distributors) in between Bank & agent for facilitating cash rebalancing of the agents.

In some area DBBL had no branches. Agents of those areas needed to travel to different area to Cash-In to or Cash-out from their account which would hamper their regular business. In order to bring ease in process of Agent cash management, DBBL launched Distribution model in Q4 of 2013 with 57 Super Agents (Distributors) across the country. At the end of 2014 total number of Super Agents all over the country became 211.

To make the Distribution Channel more effective, DBBL has launched new commission modality both for Agent & Super-Agent in July 2014.

 Marketing activities in 2014:

Super Agent Meet:

In order to build a strong relationship among the channel partners and as a part of continuous market monitoring, DBBL initiated Super-Agent Meet in different regions to get the feedback of the partners.

In 2014, DBBL has arranged Super Agent Meet in all regions namely Barisal, Chittagong, Rajshahi, Rangpur, Comilla, Dhaka, Mymenshing, Sylhet and Khulna. Senior Management teams from DBBL were present in all the Super-Agent Meet to demonstrate the commitment of DBBL towards Mobile Banking business.

Campaign with different Telco’s:

In the year of 2014, DBBL mutually participated in different campaign carried out by the partner mobile operators. These campaigns were launched for acquisition of new customers, agents and top-up programs. All the programs were very successful. 
  
Expansion of Telco Partnership:

DBBL started its Mobile Banking service with two MNOs namely Banglalink & Citycell. Thereafter DBBL partnered with Airtel, Grameenphone and Robi in last 3 years. In continuation to DBBL’s promises towards the valued customers, DBBL signed agreement with Teletalk on 6 Nov, 2014. With this agreement DBBL Mobile Banking became the first MFS having agreement with all the Mobile operators.

Expansion of Agent Partners:

Agent network is one of the vital aspects for running mobile banking within an emerging developing country like Bangladesh to facilitate financial inclusion at grass root level. They are serving the end customer and acting as a first contact point to deliver the service. At present Dutch-Bangla Bank Mobile Banking has an extensive agent footprint in 64 districts through the partnerships with different industry stakeholders including government and private entities such as Local Government Division (LGD), Access to Information (A2I), Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) and DBBL’s own Agents. This agent points are increasing day by day to provide the banking services to the door step of the people. During the year 2014, DBBL has achieved a remarkable growth in agent expansion. At the end of year 2013, the total number of agent was 62,524 which has increased to 110,866 at the end of year 2014.

Expansion of mobile banking services to all the branches of Bangladesh Krishi Bank (BKB):

In 2013 DBBL has entered into Agreement with Bangladesh Krishi Bank (BKB) for mobile banking services. Under this agreement BKB will open mobile accounts and the tellers of the BKB branches will provide cash-in/out services to the mobile banking customers. The service was launched in 3 branches BKB in 2013. In the year 2014, the service was rolled-out to all of the 1027 branches of BKB.

Partnership with Rajshahi Krishi Unnayan Bank (RAKUB):

In the year 2014, Dutch-Bangla Bank entered into an Agreement with Rajshahi Krishi Unnayan Bank (RAKUB) for mobile banking services and launched the services in 132 branches of RAKUB out of its 376 branches. This arrangement with RAKUB has allowed new customers to open DBBL Mobile account in the RAKUB branches as well as cash-in (deposit) and cash-out (withdraw) money from any BKB& RAKUB branches.
 
Development program for the Field Staffs:

Dutch-Bangla Bank has arranged regular training and development program for the Field Staffs in order to create a professional and skilled workforce. As a part of maintaining compliance issues, DBBL has conducted audit and survey throughout the year at all concern parts of the mobile Banking operation including agent points. Moreover to create strong understanding about compliance and to be aligned to the Bangladesh Bank guideline, DBBL has conducted several workshops for our field staffs specially on Anti Money Laundering issue.

Social awareness:

Dutch-Bangla Bank has conducted a number of social awareness program at different locations of Bangladesh. As part of awareness activities, DBBL attended the “Skill development, Employment and Remittance Fair” held on 11th, 15th and 18th September, 2014 in Tangail, Comilla and Chittagong to promote the remittance product among the people, with the collaboration of “Refuge and Migratory Movements Research Unit”, a renowned research center under The University of Dhaka”. Besides, DBBL has participated at the awareness program for the entrepreneurs of UNDP driven project “Urban Partnership for Poverty Reduction Project (UPPRP)”. 
 
Collaboration with a2i (Access to Information):

DBBL has been working closely with Access to Information (a2i) Program of the honorable Prime Minister’s Office. The Digital Centers established by a2i throughout the country are working a partner of DBBL in providing mobile banking services in the rural area.

With the help of a2i, DBBL is also disbursing salary of the employees of UNO offices, collecting fees for e-porcha and collecting utility bills like water bill, electricity bill, holding tax, dish charge through mobile banking.

In the year 2014, DBBL became a co-branding partner of the “National Entrepreneurs’ Conference- 2014” which was attended by the entrepreneurs of various Digital Centers’ of the country. The conference was inaugurated by the honorable Prime minister.
 
Disbursing donation of NGOs to Mohashen affected area:

In the year 2014, Dutch-Bangla Bank worked closely with various NGOs to disburse their fund among more than 30,000 Mohashen affected and water logged people of the extremely remote areas of Borguna, Shatkhira, Kurigram, Sirajganj and Gaibandha districts. DBBL field staffs of the respective localities trained the illiterate and ultra poor beneficiaries on Mobile Banking operation.

Geographical Coverage:

In the pilot phase starting on 31 March, 2011, the mobile banking services were made available in 46 Upazilas of 6 districts in the Dhaka Division. Gradually, the mobile banking services were extended to all part of the country.

To look after the mobile banking operations, the whole country was divided into 77 parts, each part being under an office. These Offices are fully equipped with computers, scanners, printers and other IT equipment.

Employment Generation for Rural Bangladesh:

In Bangladesh, the unemployment rate is very high. Thousands of educated people are searching jobs after completing their graduation from different educational institutions. DBBL operates its mobile banking business using local community. As a result, a big employment opportunity has been created at different rural area in Bangladesh. In the year of 2011, the total field staff was 418 and at the end of year of 2014, the total field staff stands at751.

On the other hand, DBBL engaged 110,866 number of agents for its Mobile Banking which in turn has created employment opportunity for more than 110,000 educated people.

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