NCC Bank to channel remittance from Japan

http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=135508

NCC Bank to channel remittance from Japan
Star Business Report

A local private commercial bank has scoped out for the first time to remit money from the expatriate Bangladeshis in Japan.

To this end, an agreement was signed between NCC Bank and Itaú Unibanco SA, a Brazilian bank in Japan, on April 16.

“We expect millions of US dollar will be remitted every year through the banking channel,” Nurul Amin, managing director of NCC Bank, told The Daily Star yesterday.

Per transaction will cost 2,500 Japanese yen ($25), an amount less than half of the cost charged by money transfer companies, he said.

According to the banker, nearly 20,000 Bangladeshis are working in Japan and they earn more than their countrymen working in Europe, Middle East and Malaysia etc.

The minimum wage in Japan is $5,000 a month.

It is surprising why banks in Bangladesh failed to set up link with the banks in Japan to facilitate remittances through formal channel, Amin said, pointing to the fact that expatriate Bangladeshis in Japan are used to send money through informal channel, known as ‘hundi’.

“We’ve got huge response there. The initiative is already clicked with opening of 300 remittance accounts in a few days,” said seemingly enthusiastic Nurul Amin.

A remitter can use 26,000 postal ATMs (automated teller machines) in Japan and the money will destine to Bangladesh within the same day. Beneficiaries in Bangladesh can receive the money in a day.

NCC Bank has already tied up with TMSS, a local NGO that has countrywide network to deliver the remittance money to the beneficiaries within the shortest possible time.

The NCC managing director hoped Bangladesh’s remittance would swell further from nearly $10 billion in fiscal 2008-09. Remittances hit $8 billion in the first nine months of the current fiscal year, marking a rise of 17.36 percent over the same period a year ago.

Itaú Unibanco is a publicly quoted bank with headquarters in São Paulo, Brazil. The bank is the result of the merger of Banco Itaú and Unibanco, which occurred on November 4, 2008 to form Itaú Unibanco Holding SA, the largest financial conglomerate in the Southern Hemisphere and is the 10th largest bank in the world by market value.