Maybe the support was trivial but the impact was tremendous for the bereaved family.

A support of Tk 50,000.00 (fifty thousand) against Bank Asia's "Double Shield Benefit Scheme" helped family of victim Nadim, a credit cardholder, repay his debts to others, a Bank Asia statement said.

"I never heard existence of such kind of schemes," said Abu Bakr, father of deceased Nadim Mahmood (25), who died on a fatal road accident. Abu Bakr was receiving the accidental benefit cheque from Bank Asia recently. "This support will help me repay debts of my son to others ... . .it will give peace to his departed soul," he said while he was removing tears from cheeks.

Nadim, hailed from Tangail, died on the spot in an accident near Ashuganj in Brahmanbaria on July 12, 2009 when his motorbike collided head on with a truck.

He received a silver card of Bank Asia on May 19, 2007. And he is the first case, who received the benefit after introduction of "Double Shield Benefit Scheme" by Bank Asia on July 1, 2009.

Under the scheme, family of a "Golden Card" holder is entitled to get Tk 0.1 million while a "Silver Card" holder Tk 50,000.00 in case of accidental death. If the cardholder left any debt against the card, it will be adjusted with the insurance fund generated by the Bank.

"We are not only awarding cash benefit of Tk 50,000.00 to the bereaved family of Nadim but also exonerated Tk 45,000.00 he credited against the card," said Erfanuddin Ahmed, Managing Director of Bank Asia Limited, when he was handing over the cheque to the parents of deceased Nadim Mahmud recently.

Nadim's family contacted Bank Asia to know the credit status after his death. "As soon as we received information, we checked his documents and found he had outstanding loan (Tk 45,000.00) in the card," said HM Mostafizur Rahaman, Head of Cards Department of Bank Asia. "Subsequently we took necessary step to handover the benefit."

At present, he informed, Bank Asia has more than 15,000 credit cardholders. Above 50 per cent of them have been turned into the scheme. "If any cardholder pays only 0.33 per cent of his monthly outstanding on regular basis, they will be included under the programme," Mostafiz said.

Mr Erfanuddin Ahmed said: "This kind of scheme has two major benefits: we let a deceased off the burden of loan he made before the death, and we are paying money in addition against the category of the card he possessed."

We in Bank Asia are very happy to play our role to make free our valuable cardholders from debt after their death. Also this initiative helps their bereaved families get rid of the burden of loan, he added.