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Top1. Introduction
“Banking is essential; banks are not” (Gates, 2008). This maxim is proved by the invention of new dimensions of banking services like mobile financial services (MFS). As reliance on the branch banking declines, online and mobile banking offerings are now among the most significant drivers of overall bank customer satisfaction (Petras, 2014). Bangladesh has been experiencing an exponential growth trend in mobile financial services over the past few years along with the increasing number of mobile phone users. At present, a home grown model sanctioned by Bangladesh Bank is followed here which is acknowledged by the US President Barack Obama (The Daily Star, 2015). Bangladesh began its mobile banking journey in 2011, the primary goal of which is financial inclusion – reaching unbanked population with appropriate financial services as less than 20% of the adult population of the country have access to banking services. Bangladesh Bank approves 28 banks to provide MFS in the country of which 20 officially launch their services so far where banks experience significant growth in their revenue streams (www.pistrategy.org).
The projected transaction in online will be $350 billion within the next five years where the yearly transacted amount in Bangladesh stands at about $1,400 billion in an economy of around $200 billion (The Daily Star, 2015). At the moment, 25.2 million users of MFS transact Tk. 3800 million daily in Bangladesh and this growth is positively interpreted in the report of Bangladesh Bank (Bangladesh Bank (BB) Monthly Report, March-2015). According to a Bangladesh Bank report published in the Daily Star on February 03, 2016, Bangladesh is experiencing a stellar growth in mobile banking and the growth rate of transaction was 53% in the year 2015 which is presented in the Table 1.
Table 1. Transaction volume through MFS during the financial year 2014 and 2015
| Year | Transaction per Month (in Crore tk / Million $) | Annual Transaction | Annual Growth Rate |
| January | February | March | April | May | June | July | August | September | October | November | December | | |
| 2014 | 7,149
(894) | 6535
(817) | 7,849
(981) | 8,096
(1012) | 8,206
(1026) | 8,523
(1065) | 10,967
(1371) | 7,435
(929) | 10,004
(1251) | 8235
(1029) | 9,675
(1209) | 10,483
(1310) | 1,03,157
(12,895) | |
| 2015 | 11,338
(1417) | 10,958
(1370) | 12,265
(1533) | 11,841
(1480) | 12,602
(1575) | 12,970
(1621) | 13,812
(1727) | 12,842
(1605) | 15,066
(1883) | 13,041
(1630) | 14,916
(1865) | 16,125
(2016) | 1,57,776
(19,722) | 53% |
Source: Bangladesh Bank Report published in the Daily Star on February 03, 2016.