BD's financial sector suffers from 'knowledge mismatch'

The financial sector of Bangladesh has 'knowledge mismatch' on both sides of the customers and service providers due to lack of knowing each other much, said a top executive of a market research firm.

To bridge the gap, the company offered a range of market solutions to know one another properly for better growth of the financial sector.

"We have two-way approaches for the financial sector. One is understanding the consumer for the financial institutions and understanding the people who want to get associated with such institutions," said Shakti Banerjee, Director of Delhi-based Varenia Consumer Insights and Measurement Solutions.

The market research and solutions company is going to open its office in Bangladesh soon. The company has not started operation yet in Bangladesh, but already registered here.

"We are targeting few sectors, finance is one of them which is doing good in Bangladesh currently," she told The Financial Express in an interview recently.

She said the financial sector includes banks, non-bank financial institutions, insurance, mobile financial services in Bangladesh.

"There are a lot of banks here. But reachable ratio to consumers is far less than any other country. The product offering is very poor," she said.

She said a large number of people in Bangladesh are youths. They want every kind of financial services and in a quick time.

She said researches say everybody is looking for housing loans.

"But what exactly they are looking for? Who are looking for the housing loans? What are their requirements and needs? Are these requirements are catered to or no? Are there any need gaps," she said, adding that there is not enough research on that.

"We want to offer the services to banks and customers both based on their needs. What type of people wants to join banks and what type of people they need in the banks?"

She said, in India, parents ask their sons and daughters to join banks so that they get a secured job and easy bank loan for the housing.

Ms. Banerjee said that but after few days of joining they see they did not want to join banks. This is loss for both the banks and the people who join.

Banking training institutions in India have done researches to know what type of people are needed in the banks and also what type of people actually want to join the banks.

She said that in rural areas, in case of agricultural loan, the potential customers even cannot read the communication materials, but they need loans. "We can assist banks in this regard to reach to the customers."

She said Varenia also wants to work in sector of fast growing consumer goods in Bangladesh.

She said on the research front, Varenia wants to be different. What it offers is very different from what other research agencies offer. "We brought apps which are much more economical compared to others. We don't outsource from third parties, the price go up. We have our own team, so the price is economical," she said.

She added that Varenia wants to grow only when it caters to the needs of the clients. "Unlike others, we can customise our research models and modules according to customers' needs and requirements. That is what also our added advantage."

She said they are getting positive response from the potential clients here. The clients are looking for innovative solutions, affordable reach with qualitative research knowledge.

Some of Varenia's notable clients are Uber, Ola, Coca-Cola, GSK, Pepsico, Taco-Bell, HERO, Bata, KFC, JK Tyres, Havells, Yum and many others.

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