Lending and deposit collection through banks’ agent banking outlets advanced in January-March period compared with that in the same period of the previous year.
The outlets disbursed Tk 26,637 crore in January-March, 2025 against their disbursement of Tk 16,482 crore in the same period of 2024, according to a Bangladesh Bank report titled ‘Quarterly Report On Agent Banking January-March, 2025.
The outlets received Tk 42,963 crore in deposits in the October-December quarter compared with those of Tk 36,870 crore in the same period of the preceding year.
The volume of deposits in the agent banking accounts has increased by 2.4 per cent and the volume of lending through these accounts has increased by 10.86 per cent over the previous quarter.
The loan to deposit ratio stands at 62.00% in the reporting quarter which was 57.27% in the previous quarter.
The steady growth of lending-to-deposit ratio hints at the positive growth of loan disbursement through agent banking, the BB report said.
The reason behind this is most banks are showing interest in developing feasible infrastructures for loan disbursement and recovery through agent outlets. Currently, 23 out of 31 banks are involved in lending through agent banking. The trend of banks’ engagement in lending seems promising as more banks are coming forward to take part in lending in this quarter compared to the previous quarter, according to the BB report.
Since access to finance is one of the key challenges of financial inclusion, lending through agent banking is explicitly beneficial for rural customers in developing countries, the BB said in its quarterly report.
According to the central bank data, the number of deposit accounts through agent banking was 2.46 crore as of March 2025.
Accounts opened by female customers constitute 49.4 per cent of the total.
The highest number of accounts and the highest amount of balance were in the form of savings.
Remittance collection through agents also increased in the reporting month.
At the end of March 2025, the amount of inward remittances through agent banking rose to Tk 1,81,204 crore, which was Tk 1,49,916 crore in March 2024.
Agent banking is an alternative way to provide banking services to underprivileged population in the rural areas, especially to those who live in remote regions.
The Bangladesh Bank introduced agent banking in 2013.
Compared with the traditional banking system, it is a less costly system where customers are able to receive various banking services on a real-time basis from the platform through an agent, the BB in a report said.
Thirty-one banks offered agent banking services through 21,023 outlets operated by 15,838 agents as in March, 2024.
Of them, the top five banks have established 72.87 per cent of the total agent outlets.
The top five banks have carried out 80.9 per cent of the total deposits and 95.13 per cent of lending through agent banking till March 2025.
