City Bank launches Islamic savings through bKash app

City Bank in collaboration with bKash launched Shariah-based savings scheme "City Islamic DPS Savings" through bKash app in Dhaka on Monday.                                                                                                                                   

It will allow customers to open deposit schemes from anywhere in a few minutes, avoiding the hassle of paper documents or forms.

Aziz Al Kaiser, chairman of City Bank, Kamal Quadir, chief executive officer of bKash, Mashrur Arefin, managing director of the bank, and Md Anwar Hosain Molla, chairman of Shariah Supervisory Committee, unveiled the new product at The Westin Dhaka.

Customers can avail the savings schemes in monthly installments of Tk 500, Tk 1,000, Tk 2,000 and Tk 3,000. The tenure of the schemes will be minimum two years and maximum four years.

In 2003, City Bank first started Islamic savings through a branch. But this time they partnered with bKash to popularise the scheme, using the MFS platform.

 "We all know that now it is not possible to develop by only banking means. So inter-industry cooperation is needed," Arefin said.

"We needed a proper channel to send our product to people. In this case, bKash is the right choice. They have a strong base of technology and 63 million customers that we are seeking to invest in."

"We want to attract small savings so that we can make a good deposit from this scheme. For this, we need to give special focus on the new product to be successful," City Bank CEO said.

Regarding this, bKash CEO Kamal Quadir said, "This could be a platform of savings in the economy of Bangladesh. People can come out of poverty if they have savings. Small savers can utilize this platform to enhance their capacity to develop."

To open Islamic savings account of City Bank, customers need to click on the 'Savings (in bank and financial institution)' icon from the home screen of bKash app.

Then, they need to select the savings tenure, type and follow a few easy steps to complete the process.

After maturity of the scheme, customers can cash out the entire amount, including profit, from their bKash account without any charge. Profit will be announced on the basis of Mudaraba. If the bank rakes in more profit, customers will draw more profit but if the bank earns less profit, customers will get less profit.

Sheikh Mohammad Maroof and Md Mahbubur Rahman, additional managing directors of the bank, were present.