How high is e-payment penetration in Bangladesh?

Bangladesh's e-payment penetration has grown significantly in recent years, but is still in thelow to medium levelThe specific status and key data are set out below:

1. Overall penetration rate

  • Account coverage: According to World Bank data for 2021 (Findex), about 21% of Bangladeshi adults have a bank account, but only10% Using mobile payments or internet banking.
  • Active User Scale: As of 2023, there are about 40 million e-payment users (including mobile wallets, bank cards, etc.) in Bangladesh, which is about 170 million of the total population (about 170 million).23%-25%.

2. Main payment modalities

  • Mobile Financial Services (MFS):
    • Dominant platforms: bKash (market share over 80%), Nagad, Rocket.
    • User base: bKash has over 70 million registered users (including repeat registrations) and approximately 35 million monthly active users.
  • Bank Cards and POS:
    • About 28 million debit cards were issued and only about 2 million credit cards.
    • There are less than 200,000 POS terminals, concentrated in big city merchants.

3. Growth drivers

  • Policy support:
    The Government promoted the "Digital Bangladesh" strategy, requiring civil servants' salaries to be paid through e-payment; the central bank approved 28 MFS operators.
  • Demand for financial inclusion:
    The scarcity of bank branches in rural areas (only 8.5 branches per 100,000 people) has contributed to the popularity of mobile wallets.

4. Challenges and bottlenecks

  • cash-dependent:: Transactions above 90% are still done in cash.
  • Infrastructure constraints:
    Although network coverage reaches 70%, 4G speeds are slow and unstable; there are insufficient agent outlets in rural areas.

5. Key trends in the growth of electronic payments (continued)

(1) Governments and central banks drive digitisation

  • Mandatory Electronic Policy:
    • From 2023, the Bangladesh government requires all utility bills (water, electricity, gas, etc.) to be paid through e-payment.
    • Digitisation of civil service pay:: Government salaries and allowances above 90% have been disbursed through bKash or bank accounts.
  • Improved regulatory framework:
    • The central bank (Bangladesh Bank) has introduced the Payment System Bill 2024 to strengthen compliance management of mobile wallets while encouraging innovation (e.g. open APIs).

(2) The rapid spread of QR payments

  • Merchant promotion:
    Retail shops and restaurants in the major cities of Dhaka and Chittagong have widely supported QR code payments from bKash/Nagad, but small merchants still rely on cash.
  • Cross-platform interoperability:
    In 2023, the RBI launched "Bangla QR" to harmonise standards for code scanning across wallets, but the current penetration rate is less than 30%.

6. Segment performance

realm Electronic payment penetration Main players/mode
Retail consumption ~15%-20% bKash, Nagad, POS swipe card
e-commerce ~35%-40% bKash, credit card (high-end users only), cash on delivery (still 60%)
Cross-border remittances ~50%+ bKash partners with Western Union to dominate regular channels
Rural areas <10% Agent outlets mainly for cash top-ups, MFS for small transfers

7. Future growth potential and challenges

(1) Points of opportunity

  • Financial inclusion gap:: There are still 60 million unbanked adults and MFS can fill the need.
  • e-commerce driven:: The e-commerce market is expected to reach $7 billion by 2025, which will drive demand for prepaid cards and instalments.
  • Cross-border payment integration: Overseas labour remittances from Saudi Arabia, UAE, etc. account for more than 51 TP3T of GDP, and there is a lot of room for efficiency gains in the digital channel.

(2) Core bottlenecks