Bangladesh Bank moves to raise remittance flow from Japan, S Korea

The central bank of Bangladesh has taken initiatives to expedite the flow of inward remittances from Japan and South Korea, officials said.

Under the latest moves, the Bangladesh Bank (BB) is giving approval to the interested commercial banks for setting up more drawing arrangements with money transfer companies in the two countries.

Some local banks including Islami Bank Bangladesh Limited (IBBL) have already shown interest to increase the inflow of remittances from the two East Asian countries with setting up of their drawing arrangements, they added.

"Our diplomatic missions in the two countries are now encouraging us to take necessary measures to gear up the inflow of remittances from the two countries," a senior BB official told the FE.

Currently, 29 exchange houses are operating globally with more than 1,200 drawing arrangements to boost the inflow of remittances.

When contacted, a senior IBBL official told the FE: "Yes, we're trying to set up drawing arrangements to gear up the inflow of remittance from Japan."

He said IBBL is also working to expedite the inflow of remittance from South Korea.

The inflow of remittance from Japan increased by more than 37 per cent to US$31.44 million in the fiscal year (FY) 2017-18 from $22.89 million a year ago, the BB data showed.

It was $22.67 million in the FY 16.

On the other hand, Bangladesh received $96.27 million as remittance from South Korea in the FY 18.

The figure was 15.61 per cent higher than that of the inflow of remittance in the previous year. It was $64.71 million in the FY 16.

Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) topped the list of major sources of remittance for Bangladesh with a total of $2.59 billion sent from the country in the FY 18 while the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the United States were in second and third position respectively.

In the FY 18, Bangladesh received $2.43 billion as remittances from the UAE and nearly $2.0 billion from the United States.

Qatar, Oman, Bahrain, the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, Germany, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore and Australia are among other top sources of remittance.

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