Bank authorities need to change their mind-set to quickly adopt to financial technology to cope with the challenges channelled from FinTech firms especially in the areas of retail banking or financial services, experts said.
Banks should develop awareness and reduce perception gap of banking management in technology adaptability issues, they added.
They came up with these observations at a roundtable discussion on ‘FinTech and RegTech: Possible Impact on Banking System in Bangladesh’ organized by the Bangladesh Institute of Bank Management (BIBM) at its auditorium in the city on Monday.
Director (RD&C) of BIBM Dr Prashanta Kumar Banerjee delivered welcome address while Director General of BIBM Dr Md Akhtaruzzaman chaired the Program.
S M Moniruzzaman, Chairman BIBM Executive Committee and Deputy Governor of Bangladesh Bank in his speech said that the Central Bank is continuously monitoring the activities of financial institutions of Bangladesh and providing appropriate and timely guidelines about adoption of modern technology.
“In recent times when bitcoin issue was booming, BB had taken necessary actions to prevent that and raised awareness among different stakeholders,” he said.
BB has also taken various initiatives for the smooth operation of e-banking in Bangladesh, he said adding that, BB has developed BACH, BEFTN, NPSB, RTGS infrastructure for smooth payment systems.
Moniruzzaman said BB is closely monitoring the activities of growing FinTech firms and giving appropriate directions to them.
In the concluding speech, Barkat-e-Khuda, Dr Muzzafer Ahmed, Chair of BIBM & Former Professor of Dhaka University said, “If banks invest on IT, it will bring income as well as it will reduce cost in many aspects.”
The keynote paper was jointly presented in the roundtable discussion by Associate Professor of BIBM Md Shihab Uddin Khan and Lecturer of BIBM Md Foysal Hasan.
Other members of the research team are Mohammed Ishaque Miah, Systems Manager (General Manager) of Bangladesh Bank; Md Mizanur Rahman, Executive Vice President of South Bangla Agricultural and Commerce Bank Ltd.
A good number of participants including senior bank executives, academicians, media representatives, faculty members of BIBM took part in the roundtable discussion.
In addition Professor of BIBM and Former Managing Director of Pubali Bank Limited Helal Ahmed Chowdhury, Managing Director and CEO of IPDC Finance Limited Mominul Islam, Senior Financial Sector Specialist AKM Abdullah, South Asia Finance and Private Sector, The World Bank also spoke among others at the event.