Citizens of Myanmar soon will be able to obtain and use bankcards for the first time, according to local media reports.
The Myanmar Economic Bank and soon-to-be-opened private banks will be allowed to issue magnetic stripe credit, debit and smart cards, the Central Bank of Myanmar noted in a statement, which also said cards already are available at a few Myanmar Economic branches.
Details regarding merchant acceptance of cards were unavailable.
Customers may obtain the cards after opening an account with the bank by depositing 1 million kyat (US$152,000 or 124,000 euros). Private-bank customers need only have a savings account.
According to an official at the India-base State Bank of India Ltd., which hopes to open operations in Myanmar, the move to issuing cards is a big step given that the banking system in that country is very inefficient and lacks modern banking procedures.
“You cannot even open an account there with ease,” he says. “Banks, under orders from the military junta, ask for at least two guarantors.”
According many information sites on the banking sector in Myanmar, private banks in Burma were allowed to organize in 1990. But in 2003, the military government set off a banking crisis by closing a dozen private banks.
