BMBA

Rocket: A test case for financial inclusion

Access to quality payment service is a basic human right and now considered as a nascent step towards financial inclusion. Broadening up the financial inclusion base is certainly becoming a macro-economic priority across the globe, but it needs huge investment in MFS platform and value chain. Like any other key stakeholders of the financial system, commercial banks also cherish financial inclusion, but does that necessarily mean banks should invest huge fortune just out of corporate philanthropy or social CSR? [...]

Is multi-bank MFS consortium the ultimate future?

MFS (Mobile Financial Service) guideline prescribed by Bangladesh Bank clearly states that Mobile phone based Financial Services in Bangladesh has to be conducted thorough scheduled commercial bank led platform. So, under the existing regulatory eco-system, formation of an MNO-driven or payment company-led MFS platform is not possible. But have this guideline necessarily opted out for standalone, tinsel mono-bank-led MFS platforms? The answer is very straight; No. The regulator is actually concerned about interoperability possibility and commercial viability of numerous small [...]

bKash – Opportunities and challenges

bKash is the first MFS provider to attain economies of scale in Bangladesh (basically a Type I market – low income, low banking rate). bKash has been the first MFS provider in reaching out the under-banked and unbanked segment of Bangladeshi population at a very cheap, convenient and reliable way. bKash’s value proposition is simple: a safe, convenient place to store money; a safe, easy way to make payments and money transfers. Through cutting off agent’s chores and by enhancing [...]

Why are Bangladesh based entrepreneurs not coming to equity market?

Entrepreneurs, established entrepreneurs do have funding needs; they will need external funding for financing acquisitions, expansions or extracting value from real options. Equity market is a popular financial intermediation medium available to entrepreneurs. The biggest and most successful entrepreneurs in the country are yet to find the capital market a lucrative source of financing for their companies that they built over the years. Take, for instance, the case of Meghna Group of Industries, which is one of the biggest conglomerates [...]

The world of Schumpeter

Joseph Schumpeter synchronized capitalism with a process of evolution in his very popular book ‘Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy’. Economic change was considered as the only stationary variable when Schumpeter described the evolutionary feature of the capitalist economy. This evolution process of capitalism is holistic and should not be evaluated on a real time basis. The evolutionary nature of capitalism is not merely due to the changes in the natural and social environment (war, revolutions and so on); due to the [...]