City Bank to expand overseas business in Singapore

City Bank is going to expand its overseas business in Singapore by investing SGD 2 million equivalent to Tk12.55 crore.

With this investment, the private commercial bank will set up a subsidiary company to provide remittance services to the wage earners living in Singapore.

The listed bank made the investment announcement at the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) website on Tuesday.

The board of directors of the bank already approved the investment plan and the bank is now waiting for final approval from the Bangladesh Bank and the Monetary Authority of Singapore, according to the disclosure.

The primary focus of the new subsidiary will be on Bangladesh-bound remittances, according to the bank.

"The bank is doing very well in remittance business in Malaysia. From this experience, we decided to expand business in Singapore," said Mashrur Arefin, managing director of the bank.

"We attained expertise in remittance business and now want to change the remittance collection scenario in Singapore," he also said.

He said the bank has been operating 13 branches in Malaysia and collected $218 million in remittances from there in 2020. Of the amount, $152 million remittance came to Bangladesh.

The City Bank established its presence in Malaysia through CBL Money Transfer (CBLMT), a subsidiary company, in 2013.

Currently, a total of 8.14 lakh wage earners are living in Singapore.

Remitters sent a total $578 million remittance from Singapore in the last fiscal year, according to Bangladesh Bank data.

This year, 21,000 migrant workers went to Singapore from Bangladesh.

Besides, the bank established a subsidiary named City Hong Kong Limited in Hong Kong in 2019 as a strategic geographic expansion initiative. This subsidiary company has been in loss since last year, according to the annual report of the bank.

The earning per share of the bank increased to Tk2.97 in the first nine months this year from Tk2.89 in the same period of the last year, according to the DSE.

The bank made net profit of Tk401 crore in the last year and disbursed 17.5% cash dividend and 5% stock for the year.

The price of each share of the bank declined 1.48% on Tuesday and closed trading at Tk26.60 in the DSE.

The share price of the bank remained downward in the last one month, according to the DSE.