Cashless Economy : What will be the impact ?

 

Cashless Banking is a financial monument of a nowadays country that has yet to be attained by Bangladesh due to several socio-economic reasons, but hopefully, we are adopting gradually.

Don’t want to carry all the paper monies for shopping? Or those ridiculous coins that ding dongs all the way? Let me introduce you to the thought of ‘Cashless Banking.’ Via this approach, you get to do all sorts of financial transactions by digital money/currency that could be based on any of the ideas like NEFT or RTGS, Credit or Debit card, E-wallets, Mobile-wallets, UPI Apps, Gift cards and whatnot.

The true chronicle of Cashless Banking can hardly be over highlighted with the true sense of the term, going back from 1990, and widespread maturity was achieved by the year 2010 across the world. The idea of Cashless Banking is now so well developed that many countries are now claiming themselves to be a part of ‘Cashless Society.’

 

According to The Daily Star, only 6% of the total transactions are done via means of the electronic method in Bangladesh. For our country, the sole means of going cashless is the utilization of cards (credit or debit), ATM machines as well as PoS.

As per the news from the Bangladesh Bank, the debit cards and the credit cards that are in circulation today are over 14.66M and 1.13M successively.  But using a credit card to purchase things is going cashless, where most of the people only use it for the withdrawal of money that is not going cashless. The idea has to be incorporated in a befitting manner.

Also, only a little over 8% utility bills are paid by digital means, in salaries are paid by this means is only in 2.6% cases roughly. However, the cashless regime is now getting bigger in this country with the MFS (mobile financial service) like bkash, Rocket, Nagad, MyCash etc. A survey conducted by the Bangladesh Bank has revealed quite interesting the fact that the average daily money exchange via the MFS has increased to above Tk. 10.06 Billion.

The slow flow of us towards cashless banking is due to the facts of the high rate of illiteracy, less knowledge about the benefits of going cashless, and scarcity of supporting logistics. Presently, one-third of the population of Bangladesh is unbanked. The country needs more time and efforts to take banking facilities to rural areas. A cashless economy will only hinder that process. These are the physical challenges, and also economic challenges are to be addressed like going cashless would render many bank workers lose their job, unemployment problems, security problems, etc. Due to the several crude reality factors, for Bangladesh, going cashless is highly like a pipe dream.

The topmost disadvantage of the Cashless Banking is that, in many 3^rd world countries like ours, and also in developed countries, there are always people, who are poor, needy, immigrants with no legal documentation, cannot afford such financial facilities. Old persons throughout the world also are not accustomed to the use of Cashless Banking, so they have to rely on the good old fashion paper/plastic money.

This is high time to level the playing field for the means of cashless banking promoting competition as well as turning Bangladesh into a ‘Smart Nation’ by gradually incorporating the bulletproof idea in the mind of the fellow countrymen and ensuring their financial stability and security.