DHAKA, March 27, 2019 (BSS) – School banking is gradually getting huge responses from the students across the country as deposits with the banking accounts crossed Taka 1,500 crore at the end of December 2018.
The central bank’s latest quarterly report on financial inclusion shows that a total of Taka 1,510.32 crore was deposited with 18,18,413 school banking accounts in 56 scheduled banks as of December 31, 2018.
According to the report, the school banking service is more popular in the cities than in the rural areas as 11,44,243 school banking accounts were opened in the cities against 6,74,170 accounts in the rural areas.
The banking is also more popular among the male students than the female students as 10,64,492 school banking accounts were opened by male students against 7,53,921 by female students.
Taka 1,268.31 crore (83.98 percent of total school banking deposits till December 2018) was deposited with 12,27,609 accounts, 67.51 percent of total school banking accounts, in private commercial banks.
On the other hand, Taka 197.82 crore was deposited with 4,57,320 accounts in state-owned commercial banks.
Talking to BSS, a senior official of the Bangladesh Bank (BB) said the central bank launched the programme in November 2010 for school students to help them save up for the future, learn financial literacy at an early age and build the habit of saving.
Mentioning the school banking as a step in the financial inclusion program, he said the program has been adopted to introduce the banking system and modern banking technology among the students of less than 18 years old.
He said there are some advantages of opening this account, such as waivers of fees and charges, a waiver of minimum balance requirement and debit card.
Dutch-Bangla Bank, Islami Bank Bangladesh, Eastern Bank, United Commercial Bank and Rupali Bank are the five banks that pulled most of the deposits from the students.
Islami Bank opened 3,23,187 accounts, which is 17.77 percent of the total accounts, while Dutch-Bangla Bank ranked first by collecting deposits of Taka 452.06 crore with school banking accounts.
“As per an instruction of the central bank, Islami Bank introduced school banking so that the future generation can gain knowledge on the financial system,” said Islami Bank Deputy Managing Director Abu Reza Mohd Yeahia.