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Banks spend Tk 230 million on paper and printing for 7.0 million deposit account opening forms per year, according to the Bangladesh Institute of Bank Management (BIBM).
A staggering 1,050 tonnes of A4-size paper sheets are required for the forms, revealed a BIBM research paper on Thursday.
The research workshop styled 'Digitalisation of Documents in Banking Operations' disclosed that 1,050 tonnes of paper requires an estimated 24,000 trees.
BIBM director (training) Prof Dr Shah Md Ahsan Habib said while presenting the paper on the topic at BIBM headquarters in the capital.
Indirect costs of using paper only for such forms are equivalent to 1,000 households' energy consumption for more than six years and carbon emissions by 1,000 cars for more than six months.
It is also equal to the production of 85 trucks of garbage, more than 20 million gallons of polluted water and a vast amount of additional water-borne waste.
"If account opening forms only require such financial and environmental costs, think about other papers banks use annually. The price is huge." Mr Habib said.
A six-member team of bankers and academicians, led by Mr Habib, prepared the paper.
Recognition or acceptance of digital signature or e-signature is one single thing that will accelerate digitalisation of banks massively.
"But for that," Mr Habib said, "the country needs specific direction and legislation regarding digitalisation of documents."
He said the banking industry cannot go paperless completely in near future in existing regulatory, operational and social set-up.
"Banks preserve documents for more than the required period of circulars that affect the total operating costs and ultimately their profitability," he added.
Mr Habib said costs could easily be cut reducing sizes of forms by tumbling avoidable information.
Banks need a greater e-KYC (know your customer) coverage as an immediate requirement towards digitalisation of banking, he cited.
BIBM director general Md Nazimuddin, also Bangladesh Bank executive director, inaugurated the programme with Dr Muzaffer Ahmed Chair Professor Dr Barkat-e-Khuda in the chair.
BIBM Professor Md Nehal Ahmed delivered an address of welcome.
Helal Ahmed Chowdhury, supernumerary professor of BIBM and former managing director of Pubali Bank, and Yasin Ali, former supernumerary professor of BIBM, spoke at the event.
Md Mehmood Husain, managing director and CEO of NRB Bank Ltd, and Md Monitur Rahman, deputy managing director of IFIC Bank Ltd, also spoke, among others. The speakers said the central bank or the banking industry alone cannot digitalise the banking sector. Government agencies have interdependency, they added.
Banking digitalisation alone would not yield the expected result if agencies like Anti-Corruption Commission, National Board of Revenue or security forces do not get digitalised, the speakers observed.