Global payment network giant Visa Inc believes that debit-card use in Bangladesh can grow at least ten times, underpinned by an expanding economy and consumer base.
"Bangladesh is at least a 30-40 million debit-card market," T.R. Ramachandran, Group country manager for India and South Asia, told the Financial Express in an interview before winding up his four-day visit to Dhaka Wednesday.
"We're working very, very hard toward that. In the last one year alone, we've increased the number of debit-cards by 33 per cent. This thing has happened exponentially," he said.
In Bangladesh, 3.6 million people use debit-cards while the number of credit-card users is even lower- only 950,000 in a country of 160 million. And this compares with neighbouring India's 570 million debit-card and 21 million credit-card users.
His optimism comes as Bangladesh economy has been expanding at the rate of 6.5 per cent over the past decade and the number of cellphone users has topped 124 million.
Around 25 million people are linked to mobile financial services in Bangladesh, where daily transactions have reached 2.5 million.
Mr Ramachandran, who joined Visa six months ago from the insurance industry, said his immediate priority is to promote debit cards in Bangladesh by teaming up with public and private banks, already 35 are on Visa's network.
Giving a sense of the potential, he said Visa's partner Sonali Bank, the nation's biggest state-controlled lender, alone can have 2.0-3.0 million debit-cards.
And it seems to be a doable thing in case of debit cards as he said Islami Bank issued 500,000 Visa's debit-cards in less than a year.
Visa has been operating in Bangladesh for the last 18 years and holds the biggest market share, leaving behind its rival Mastercard.
Mr Ramachandran said he is encouraged by "positive attitude" of the Bangladesh Bank and banks toward promoting digital payment system and a cash-less society.
Mr Ramachandran is excited about the prospect of debit-cards in Bangladesh, helped by banks, especially Sonali, which has branches even in the furthest corner of the country.
Mr Ramachandran said while Dhaka and Chittagong are highly penetrated in terms of digital commerce, debit-cards and point of sales (POS) machines, there is a scope of widening geographic footprints away the two largest cities of the country. Nationwide, there are only 25,000 POS machines that accept debit-cards, he added.
He said his company has stepped up promotional campaign in the country, partnering with not only shops and restaurants, also utility service providers. For example, he said water supply agency and railway authority are now accepting Visa's debit cards.
Visa, he noted, is gradually moving from luxuries to conveniences to necessities: "Can you pay your electricity bills? Can you pay your university fees? Can you pay medical bills and insurance (premiums)?"
Mr Ramachandran is aware of the challenging task ahead as he noted that Bangladesh was still "little nascent" in the area of digital payment, despite the revolution in mobile telephony and payment.
"As a percentage of personal consumption expenditure, Bangladeshis consume Tk 100 and then only Tk o.8 on electronic, which is not even 1.0 per cent. You can imagine the long journey to increase digital payment," he said.
Digital payment makes up 5.0 per cent in India and 10-20 per cent in Asian countries, he added.
