BKash


bKash is a mobile financial service in Bangladesh operating under the authority of Bangladesh Bank as a subsidiary of BRAC Bank Limited. This mobile money system started as a joint venture between BRAC Bank Limited, Bangladesh and Money in Motion LLC, United States of America. bKash users can deposit money into their mobile accounts and then access a range of services, in particular transferring and receiving money domestically, making payments and can recharge prepaid mobiles easily. Also, They can pay mobile postpaid bills.
In April 2013, International Finance Corporation, a member of the World Bank Group, became an equity partner, in March 2014, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation became an investor in the company, and in April 2018 Ant Financial, the operators of Alipay, became an equity partner.
Fortune magazine ranked bKash among the top 50 companies in their "Change the World" list in 2017. According to them, 22% of Bangladeshi adults use bKash with around 4.5 million daily transactions.

History

bKash was launched in July 2011 in Bangladesh, with basic services: cash in, cash out and send money, keeping in mind that more than 70% of the population of Bangladesh lives in rural areas where access to formal banking services is difficult for people.. More user-demanded services like airtime top-up, bills payment, Train-Movie Ticket purchase were introduced over its span. Now it has its own for ease of access, which has been recognized as the best innovation at Financial Innovation Category in Bangladesh Innovation Award 2018 for its simplified and useful features.

Coverage

bKash can be accessed via several telephone networks in Bangladesh. bKash's agent network covers both urban and rural areas in much of Bangladesh. As of 2018, bKash was the largest provider of mobile financial services in Bangladesh.
As of March 2019, there are 16 providers of mobile financial services, but the two largest, bKash and Rocket, had a combined market share of over 99%.As of May 2019, they have 3.1 crore active users. In July 2019 total MFS transactions were in excess of Tk 37,477.58 crore.