Electronic Banking: Bangladesh Perspective

 In Bangladesh, foreign banks took the lead by introducing ATMs and credit cards in the mid 1990s, and domestic banks followed in the late 1990s
 Private commercial banks (PCBs) then took the lead to implement electronic banking in Bangladesh.
 PCBs were fortuitous to have commenced their banking services with PC based software
 The next challenge towards implementing E-Banking for these banks was to implement Any Branch Banking (ABB), popularly known as Online Banking although the term is generically used for Internet Banking
 Most of the PCBs are now providing ABB for its customers
 A PCB customer, having opened an account in a branch of a bank, can transact from any branch across the country of that same bank
 Later these banks embarked on introducing plastic currency in the form of Debit and Credit Cards
 VISA, MasterCard and American Express - world renowned brands - were launched in Bangladesh
 ATMs started to appear in the major city points either at the bank’s own initiative or with the help of consortium networks like ICTL (Q-Cash), ETN (E-Cash), BEPS, OMNIBUS
 Meanwhile, a number of banks started offering other E-banking services like Phone Banking, SMS banking and even Internet banking, although the latter has been legalized by Bangladesh Bank only recently
 Bangladeshi banks have developed relationships with many international financial agencies or intermediaries to increase the inflow of remittances into the country from the expatriates working in the foreign countries
 The Government of Bangladesh further promoted electronic banking with the promulgation of the Bangladesh Payment and Settlement Systems Regulations 2009
 They have also legalized E-Commerce initiative
 The central bank is going to introduce automated clearing house by March 2010
 Under the new system, payments will be settled using automated cheque clearing system and electronic funds transfer between 1,050 bank branches in Dhaka, initially