The loan to deposit ratio indicates that the agent banking window is serving banks’ purposes of deposit collection rather than lending, said a high official of the BB. He said the BB was closely monitoring this trend of agent banking and would take necessary measures so that banks were able to increase lending through the agent banking network. In future, banks would disburse SME loans, agriculture loans and micro credit through agent banking, said Md Arfan Ali, a pioneer of agent banking. "Agent banking has started with a focus on deposit collection. Bank Asia, NRB Commercial Bank, Dutch-Bangla Bank, Al-Arafah Islami Bank, Modhumoti Bank, Social Islami Bank, Standard Bank, First Security Islami Bank, Agrani Bank, Mutual Trust Bank, Midland Bank, United Commercial Bank, The City Bank, AB Bank, Islami Bank Bangladesh, The Premier Bank, NRB Bank, BRAC Bank, Eastern Bank, One Bank, Mercantile Bank, Exim Bank and Shahjalal Islami Bank have commenced agent banking services.

Source: Dhaka Tribune September 01, 2020 15:33 UTC