Bangladesh Bank has been honoured with the ‘Alliance for Financial Inclusion (AFI) Policy Award’ for promoting mobile-banking service in Bangladesh. The central bank’s representatives received the award at the 2014 AFI Global Policy Forum at Port of Spain in Trinidad and Tobago. AFI is an international organization of central banks and other financial regulators working for greater financial inclusion. Governor Atiur Rahman said the award was an encouraging recognition for his team’s ‘pro-active initiatives’ in policy making that promoted partnerships. Bangladesh Bank has received the award for its ‘Guidelines on Mobile Financial Services’ introduced in 2011. The central bank has so far given permission to 28 banks and a bank subsidiary for running mobile banking services. More than 16.7 million people have opened accounts so far availing the mobile financial services which is growing by the day. Transaction through mobile banking in Bangladesh averages Tk 2.84 billion a day.
