Bangladesh: Agent Banking as a Tool of Financial Inclusion

The formal banking sector in Bangladesh has explored different ways to expand their outreach and bring the marginalized people in the society under its umbrella. However, more than 62 percent of the population still lacks access to the formal financial service. Agent banking can be one mechanism to bring this large number of people under the coverage of the formal financial sector. Agent banking is comparatively a new idea that can help the formal banking sector reach out to the marginalized people through their agents, who will provide several banking services to the people locally.