BB awards top remitters

Bangladesh Bank has awarded 26 individuals who sent the highest amounts of remittance to Bangladesh last year.

Of them, five were given the award for their investments in foreign currency bonds.

BB Governor Fazle Kabir handed the Bangladesh Bank Remittance Award 2016 at a ceremony at the Bangla Academy auditorium in Dhaka yesterday.

Of the top remitters, 17 live in the UAE and nine in the US, Kuwait, Germany, Singapore, Qatar and Australia.

Four money changers owned by expatriates and five local banks were also honoured for their role in bringing remittance.

The money changers are: Placid NK Corporation and Sunman Global Express Corp of the USA, National Exchange Company SRL of Italy, and NEC Money Transfer of the UK.

The five banks are Islami, Standard Chartered, Agrani, Sonali and Janata.

In 2015, the central bank awarded 31 individuals and four money changers.

The BB introduced the award in 2014 to recognise remitters for their contribution to the economy and encourage expatriates to send more money through formal banking channels.

Migrant workers sent home $12.77 billion in fiscal 2016-17, the lowest in six years, according to data from the central bank. Remittance earnings from the Middle Eastern countries dropped 14.58 percent year-on-year to $7.3 billion in the last fiscal year.