Bangladesh’s Financial Inclusion Rate Drops to 43%
According to the latest World Bank Global Findex Report 2025, financial inclusion in Bangladesh has gone down significantly. In 2024, only 43% of adults in the country had an account in banks, non-bank financial institutions, or mobile financial services (MFS). This is a sharp drop from 53% in 2021.
What Is the Findex Report?
The Findex Report, published every three years by the World Bank, shows how people around the world access and use financial services. It highlights how adults save, borrow, make payments, and handle financial risks. The 2025 edition covers 141 countries and was released on Thursday.
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Global Progress, But Bangladesh Struggles
While financial inclusion has improved globally, Bangladesh is one of the few countries where the situation has worsened. Worldwide, the rate of adults with a financial account rose from 74% to 79%. In comparison:
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India leads South Asia with 89% of adults having financial accounts.
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Bangladesh comes next with 43%, ahead of only Pakistan in the region.
Banking and Mobile Accounts on the Decline
Bangladesh is also seeing a decline in both traditional and mobile financial accounts:
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Bank or financial institution accounts dropped from 24% to 23%.
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People with both bank and MFS accounts remain at around 10%.
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Mobile account ownership fell significantly from 29% to 20%.
This downward trend is unusual, as many developing countries are seeing growth in mobile banking.
Growing Gender Gap in Account Ownership
The gender gap in financial account ownership has widened:
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In 2024, 33% of women had financial accounts, compared to 54% of men.
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In 2021, these rates were 44% for women and 63% for men.
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The gender gap has grown from 19 percentage points in 2021 to 21 percentage points in 2024.
Women also lag behind in using digital payments. Only 27% of women used digital payments, compared to 45% of men.
Why the Numbers Are Falling
Although the World Bank report does not clearly state why Bangladesh’s numbers have dropped, experts believe the decline in mobile financial service (MFS) accounts may be a key reason.
According to Bangladesh Bank:
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In December 2021, there were around 169.7 million registered MFS accounts.
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By 2025, the number had dropped to around 145 million.
This large fall in active accounts may have directly affected the overall financial inclusion rate.
Source: Independent TV
