Bank accounts with above Tk1cr fall by 2,000 in 3 months
The number of bank accounts with at least Tk1 crore in the country increased during the pandemic, but it has decreased by about 2,000 from July to September this year due to ongoing inflationary pressure.
At the same time, the amount of money deposited in these bank accounts decreased by Tk27,567 crore, according to the Scheduled Banks Statistics for September this year.
According to the Bangladesh data for September, there are 1,06,520 bank accounts in the country with over Tk1 crore deposits. Around Tk6,52,794 crores were deposited in those accounts.
In June this year, the number of accounts with at least Tk1 crore was 1,08,457, where Tk6,80,361 crores were deposited.
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Bankers said the number of bank accounts with crores of taka does not reflect the number of millionaires in the country. Organisations hold more accounts with crores of taka than individuals do. As the rate of inflation has been increasing in the current fiscal year, many people are running their families by withdrawing their deposit money, so people's savings are decreasing.
Inflation in the country was above 9% for two consecutive months – 9.52% in August and 9.10% in September. Inflation eased slightly to 8.91% in October this year.
Syed Mahbubur Rahman is the Managing Director & CEO of Mutual Trust Bank, "Customers have been receiving less than 5% interest on deposits on an average. The price of goods has increased more than the inflation rate indicated by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics. The customers' profit from deposits is less than the money they spent on household expenses, so their savings are decreasing."
He also said currently investing in property fetches more profit than keeping money in the banks, so people are transferring their money to that sector.
According to the Bangladesh Bank data, there were 99,918 accounts with at least Tk1 crore in June 2021. Since then, the number of such accounts increased continuously till June this year. The number of accounts with crores of taka increased by 8,539 from June 2021 to June 2022.
According to the Bangladesh Bank, at the end of September this year, there were around Tk15.76 crores in over 13.34 crore accounts in the country's banks. Around 17.31% of the country's total bank deposits belong to government accounts, while the remaining 82.69% belongs to the private sector.
The Bangladesh Bank does not have the statistics regarding the number of individuals who hold accounts with crores of taka. Officials of a number of public and private banks said only 5-7% of such accounts belong to individuals, while public and private organisations including local and foreign companies own the rest.
However, a senior Bangladesh Bank official said the number of millionaires in the country is much more than it appears, because many of them keep Tk5-7 lakh deposits in hundreds of bank accounts.
Meanwhile, excess liquidity in the banking sector fell sharply by Tk33,000 crore in just three months to Tk1.70 lakh crore in September, according to the Bangladesh Bank.
