Consumer Credit Services in Bangladesh: Trends, Problems and Prospects

The study provides an overview of the developments in the consumer credit services in Bangladesh. The purpose of the study is to describe the trends problems and prospects of consumer credit services in Bangladesh. Both the qualitative and the quantitative research have been conducted for this study. 500 customers and 76 bankers were selected as sample for interviewing. The increasing rate of disbursement of consumer credit scheme in the majority banks in Bangladesh indicates that consumer credit has huge demand in this country. The consumer credit schemes of different banks are not equally well fitted for the expectation of the customers. Interest rate, fees, charge, procedures, proof of income, documentations, quotation, delay response from bank employees, cordial behavior, small frame of time, insufficient financial support, negative attitude towards low income group, clumsy application form, critical procedure, guarantor are problems of this scheme. The study highlights that bankers should take extra care to improve the quality of the consumer credit scheme. Rules, regulation & policy of the consumer credit scheme should be set to meet consumers’ expectation. Interest rate, processing fees, late payment fees, and hidden charge of the scheme should be reduced for increasing the demand of the consumer credit. Most of the branches of banks should be offered this loan to consumers for ensuring the available of the credit.