Pubali to introduce fast remittance transfer from Malaysia next week

Safiul Alam Khan Chowdhury, deputy managing director of Pubali Bank, speaks at a training programme on remittance payment at The Daily Star Centre yesterday. Mainuddin Hassan Chowdhury, country director of Merchantrade Asia, is also seen. Photo: Star

Pubali Bank has tied up with Merchantrade Asia Sdn Bhd, Malaysia's biggest remittance services provider, to provide quick and better services to migrant workers' families.

The new arrangement, which will take effect from next week, will allow the families of workers back home to withdraw money within a minute the remittance is made at a Merchantrade branch, said Safiul Alam Khan Chowdhury, deputy managing director of Pubali Bank.

Merchantrade will provide personal identification numbers to remitters, which their family members can present to any Pubali branch to withdraw the sum.

Chowdhury's comments came at a training programme on remittance payment at The Daily Star Centre yesterday.

He asked Pubali officials to ensure quick clearance of transactions involving remittance from a humanitarian perspective. 

M Hasan Ali, general manager for Pubali Bank's international division, said the bank disbursed around Tk 450 crore in remittances from Malaysia last year. The bank is expecting the inflows to hit the Tk 500 crore-mark this year. Around 1.6 million Bangladeshi workers are sending remittance to Bangladesh from Malaysia.

Malaysia issued visas for 6,000 workers from Bangladesh and about 5,000 migrated as of August 26 and got jobs under the government-to-government arrangement.

The Southeast Asian nation will recruit 12,000 more Bangladeshi workers for its plantation sector, according to its Human Resources Minister Richard Riot Anak Jaem. He, however, did not mention when the recruitment will take place.

Merchantrade is the first and largest non-banking remittance service provider in Malaysia, said Mohammad Mainuddin Hassan Chowdhury, country director of Merchantrade Asia. 

“Our express remittance branches are an established and recognised icon among our customers and open 365 days a year to offer available, fast, and safe money transfer services to the remitters.”

In addition to 62 branches, more than 60 official agent locations in Malaysia featuring more than 170,000 payment networks across Asia provide “efficient and secure” services every day, he added.

The country's foreign exchange reserves reached a new high in June, crossing the $22 billion-mark for the first time in the nation's history. Reserves stood at $22.05 billion, according to data from Bangladesh Bank.

Remittance through Pubali Bank grew 5.5 percent to Tk 2,892 core in the last six months to June.

Pubali's net profit rose 30.85 percent to Tk 230.55 crore in 2013, compared to the same period of the previous year, according to the bank's website.  Last year, the bank's deposit stood at Tk 17,787.82 crore and advances at Tk 13,694.05 crore.