Financial Inclusion: An Economic Growth Engine for Bangladesh

Abstract

Financial inclusion aims at drawing the “unbanked” population into the formal financial system so that they can get chances to make access in the financial services like savings, payments, remittance, insurance etc. Financial inclusion is a key element of social inclusion. Again, for sustainable economic development of a country, inclusiveness of financial system is a pre-requisite. People from the different segments of the society should have access in the financial institutions and knowledge to avail the various economic benefits given by the particular government of the country. Such an inclusive growth can boost up the local economic conditions that make better the national economy of a country. As a lower middle income country (LMIC), the government of Bangladesh and its private players has been instrumental to make the general mass financially literate in order to include them in the financial system.The present study aims to discuss the present status of the financial inclusion in Bangladesh and address the future actions about financial inclusion to bring the financially excluded people, especially the poor within the banking boundary. The study found that Central Bank of Bangladesh has been playing a great role in this regard. It has already made numerous regulations and a number of policies to engage the public, private banks and other semi formal financial institutions like co-operative banks, micro finance institutions to offer different financial services and arrange training programs for the financially excluded people. In addition, mobile banking has also become a popular intermediary in Bangladesh for making financial transaction. To transact money through mobile banking, people from the interior part of the village now can send and receive money, remittance, and other government benefits.

Keywords: Economic development, financial inclusion, Growth engine, Inclusive growth, Mobile banking