Probashi Kallyan Bank to set up exchange houses

The Probashi Kallyan Bank (expatriates' welfare bank) plans to set up exchange houses to help expatriate Bangladeshis send remittance to the country, said the chief of the bank.     

With this end in view the bank has applied to the central bank recently through the ministry of finance (MoF) for getting the approval.

Initially, the bank is considering to establish exchange houses in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain and Malaysia once it gets the government permission.    

"We have applied to Bangladesh Bank (BB) through the MoF for setting up exchange houses in the UAE, Bahrain and Malaysia," Managing Director (MD) and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Probashi Kallyan Bank CM Koyes Sami told the FE Saturday.

He said that the bank is going to hold a meeting during this month to push the initiative forward.

"We are going to hold a meeting during the current month to review the issue," he said.

Asked about the commission rate for sending remittance through the proposed exchange houses of the bank, he said, "The rate would be competitive compared with other banks".     

Currently, about 10 million Bangladeshis are working in 143 countries across the world in various professions.

The world's largest Bangladeshi diaspora population is in Saudi Arabia, where there are almost 3 million of them.

There are also significant diaspora population in the other Arab states of the Gulf, particularly in the UAE, Bahrain and Kuwait and Malaysia where Bangladeshis are mainly classified as foreign workers.

There are over two million of expatriate Bangladeshis in the UAE while 2,73,933 in Bahrain and 7,05,054 in Malaysia.   

A World Bank report in 2012 described Bangladesh as the seventh highest remittance earning country.

Remittance has been growing at double digits since 1980s and currently accounts for nearly 11 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP). Bangladesh's foreign currency reserves recently reached a record US$19 billion.

The expatriates sent remittance worth $13.83 billion during last year, according to Bureau of Manpower and Employment and Training (BMET).

As policy steps to smooth remittance inflow, separate savings instruments have been created for non-resident Bangladeshis.

The instruments are: non-resident foreign currency deposit, US dollar premium bond and wage-earners' development bond, said Bangladesh Bank sources.

As many as 37 banks also set up 1,084 drawing arrangements with 288 exchange houses all over the world to bring down remittance cost.