Finance minister AMA Muhith backs a longstanding demand of Probashi Kalyan Bank to upgrade its current status to a partial commercial bank so that the nascent bank is enabled to provide optimum services to Bangladeshi Diaspora. Muhith asked Bangladesh Bank last week to allow the principal branch of PKB to pursue all types of commercial banking activities as the bank has been handicapped to cater to the migrant workers fully due to its specialised nature.
The PKB, established in April 2011, is supposed to cater to the needs of migrant workers—providing them low-cost loans to bear the migration related costs, rehabilitating the workers in case of their retrenchments in their foreign outstations and repatriating their remittances—has so far failed due to lack of policy supports, a top banker said.
As the PKB is not a member of the clearing house due to its specialised status of banking operation, the house does not entertain or clear its cheques from migrant workers, said PKB managing director and Chief Executive Officer CM Koyes Sami.
The existing rules of
Bangladesh Bank stipulate only commercial banks or branches of any specialised banks having approvals from the central bank to operate commercial transactions though their particular branches could only become members of clearing house.
‘It is our longstanding demand to get the go-ahead from BB to operate commercial banking activities through our principal branch,’ Koyes told New Age on Tuesday.
‘Serving the migrant workers and Bangladeshi diaspora more professionally and efficiently is our sole objective and that can be translated into reality once the permission from BB is obtained,’ he added.
Currently, the PKB offers loans at only nine per cent interest to outbound migrant workers.
‘We could even give better exchange rates to our targeted clients than other banks against their remitted amount as profiteering is not the only goal of the bank, but serving the migrant and diaspora Bangladeshis,’ the CEO of PKB told New Age.
Muhith in his letter to BB Governor Atiur Rahman said the same facility was enjoyed by former Bangladesh Shilpa Bank through its principal branch, though the bank was a specialised one.
‘The principal branch of PKB should be given similar facility like those of other commercial banks of the country to push the PKB’s efforts to extend cooperation to migrant workers and Diaspora Bangladeshis effectively,’ reads the letter of Muhith.
The letter of finance minister also said BB should extend its policy support to help PKB open an Exchange House as well.
As of November this year, the PKB has established its 27 branches across the country, while it extended low-cost loans to 1,600 migrant workers during the period to bear a lion’s share of their migration costs.
-With New Age input
