A small printed QR code now prominently sits near the counter of almost every shop and market stall across Dhaka. Bangla QR, Bangladesh Bank’s interoperable payment system, represents one of the most significant pieces of financial infrastructure built in the country in years.

Any customer using any bank or mobile financial service can now pay any merchant by scanning a single QR code. The system is designed to integrate a payment ecosystem that has long operated in silos and holds significant potential to drive the next major shift in the country's money management.

Government policies have already yielded measurable results, with Bangladesh Bank and the World Bank reporting that more than 53% of the population now holds a bank account. Additionally, the number of registered mobile financial service accounts reached 239.3 million by January 2026.

According to Bangladesh Bank’s Financial Inclusion Report for April–June 2026, no-frills accounts—which encompass low-income, student, and “street urchin” banking—now total 36,648,119. These accounts hold deposits amounting to Tk90,101.37 million.

When comparing these data with regional peers, however, the gap becomes clear. Account ownership among Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, India, Pakistan, and Nepal ranges from a high of 89% in Sri Lanka down to 21% in Pakistan, with India recording 78% and Nepal 54%.

However, these two extreme ends of the spectrum are not necessarily the best benchmarks. Sri Lanka records the highest per capita income and literacy rate among all nations in the region, whereas Nepal features an economy reliant on remittance and tourism rather than domestic financial depth.

India and Pakistan offer the fairer comparison because they share similar income levels and developing economies with sizeable informal sectors and broadly similar macroeconomic pressures.

Among these two nations, India has demonstrated how deliberate policy can engineer account ownership. In 2014, the country launched the "Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana," a national program built around a single objective: ensuring a formal bank account for every household.

The World Bank has attributed much of India’s sharp rise in account ownership between 2014 and 2017 directly to that program, which used official identification to draw previously unbanked citizens into the formal system.

This was followed by the UPI, India’s interoperable payments infrastructure, which brought together a landscape that had been as fragmented as Bangladesh’s remains today.

Private companies such as Paytm and PhonePe capitalized on this situation, and today the results are visible on the ground level, with street vendors across Indian cities accepting digital payments without any issues.

Bangladesh has developed a system similar to UPI with its Bangla QR, removing a daily barrier to utilizing formal financial channels. Furthermore, utilizing the National Payment Switch Bangladesh (NPSB), interoperability now functions bidirectionally, enabling funds to transfer seamlessly from Mobile Financial Services (MFS) to banks and from banks to MFS, matching the ease of MFS-to-MFS or bank-to-bank transactions.

The current challenge is that the population has yet to fully comprehend how to plan, save, or invest their money. Although there has been rapid growth in mobile financial services (MFS) penetration in the country, the majority of users who know how to send or receive money still do not understand basic concepts, such as how micro-insurance functions or why a mutual fund or digital DPS might serve their long-term interests better than idle cash.

This financial gap stems from a widespread lack of financial literacy within the country. While the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics reports a general literacy rate of 77.9%, the national financial literacy rate stands at just 28%. This indicates that more than 70% of the population lacks a fundamental understanding of basic financial concepts.

There is no alternative to financial literacy if we want people to be able to manage their money well and make decisions suited to their circumstances. No platform or policy can make those choices on a person’s behalf.

It is imperative to integrate financial literacy into the educational curriculum so that individuals grow up learning financial concepts that will later help them manage their finances in life.

We also need more community-based campaigns and programs focused on gender-inclusive financial literacy, officials noted. The government, financial institutions, and the private sector must all provide easy and convenient financial tools to ensure greater accessibility for individuals, regardless of their income, demographic, or gender.

The government has set its sights on a trillion‑dollar economy by 2034.

However, it is hard to see how that can be achieved with a financial system that marginalizes half of its adult population.

An economy grows through the circulation of capital, and the capital circulates most effectively when people can save, borrow, invest, and transact through proper channels rather than informal channels.

A trillion‑dollar economy requires savers and investors as much as it needs payers. In that regard, there remains considerable progress to be made.

Syed Javed Noor is the AMD & Head of Business of IDLC Finance PLC.

Why it matters

Low financial literacy threatens Bangladesh's goal of achieving a trillion-dollar economy by 2034 despite rapid growth in digital financial infrastructure.