Brac Bank to improve digital financial channels for migrants and their families

Brac Bank has announced a strategic initiative in order to improve digital financial services for Bangladeshi migrants who are working aboard and their family members in home country.

Under this new initiative, the bank will link the remittance channel with its value-added services and strengthen digital use-cases to encourage migrant wage earners to send remittances using the bank's cashless remittance channel, a press release said on Sunday. 

It will allow the migrants and their beneficiaries to benefit by saving time and cost as well as circumventing mobility and access constraints.

The imitative is supported by the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF), a UN agency focused primarily on making public and private finance work for the poor in 47 least developed countries.

The dominant remittance model has long relied on migrants bringing physical cash to a bricks-and-mortar money transfer outlet in the host country and transacting in person. But lockdowns due to coronavirus pandemic made the service impossible for months.

The migrant customers and their family members in home country will also receive training and social media tutorials. Remittance receivers will be able to receive remittances to their accounts or wallets, through various channels like in cards, faster direct account credits, and even without exchange houses in the middle through white-label app products.

Managing Director and CEO of BRAC Bank Selim RF Hussain said, "We are proud to be associated with UNCDF for expanding the financial ecosystem beyond remittances to enable greater financial inclusion for the Bangladeshi migrants and their families."

 "More than 270 million people, or roughly four percent of the global population, live and work outside their home countries," explained AmilAneja, UNCDF lead specialist on migration and remittances.

As one of the ten biggest remittance-receiving countries in the world, Bangladesh is an important market for UNCDF's work in this area, even more so since the volume is expected to grow by an estimated eight percent, to USD 20 billion, in the next year.

"We look forward to working with BRAC Bank, which has a strong history of innovation, to scale up digital remittances as the gateway product for broader financial inclusion," she added.