Banks urged to help return migrants

Bangladesh Bank governor Dr Atiur Rahman urged Wednesday banks and financial institutions (FIs) to take steps on how to support returned migrants through banking channel. He said steps should also be taken collectively to rehabilitate the returnees from Libya and other middle-eastern countries or help them seek jobs in other nations to keep the remittance flow intact. Thousands of Bangladeshi migrant workers who were stranded on the Libya-Tunis-Egypt borders were flown back to the country after the anti-Ghadafi movement oil-rich Arab nationLibya. The governor's request came at the inaugural session of a workshop in the city, organised to catalyse innovation in new remittance and transfer products, improve existing remittance infrastructure and the use of remittances. Dr Rahman said the central bank has been taking a number of steps for the safe and efficient payment systems to expedite faster delivery of remittances across the country. He said the Bangladesh Bank is also working on simplifying the procedure for sending remittances both domestically and internationally. The steps are part of the Remittance and Payments Challenge Fund (RPCF) under the Remittance and Payments Partnership (RPP) Project, he said. "Each inward remittance is a brick in the pillar of success of Bangladesh in fighting the global economic crisis," Mr. Rahman said. An estimated 8.0 million Bangladeshis are working and living abroad who sent home more than 10 billion last year. He said remittance transfers to Bangladesh have grown dramatically over the past two decades and have generated "considerable excitement in recent years over their potential to aid growth and development of the country." "We've set strategy for establishing a modern payment and settlement system infrastructure to deliver remittance to the remotest corner of rural Bangladesh - in the hands of the semi-illiterate beneficiary safely, securely and in a hassle-free manner," said Dr Rahman. The central bank chief said that they are working on mobile technology-based financial transactions for easy transactions. "We've already automated cheque processing systems and electronic funds transfer under the RPP project," he said. He expressed the hope the output from RPCF's efforts would certainly result in increased migrant-family income, higher savings, increased social security, household employment generation, and skills and technical knowledge development. Deputy country representative of UK's Department for International Development Diana Dalton, Bangladesh Bank executive director Dasgupta Asim Kumar and RPCF manager Anwar Uddin Chowdhury also spoke on the occasion.