Expats don’t need embassy endorsement for bank account opening

Bangladeshi expatriates do not need any copy of embassy documents or attestation to open a commercial bank account at home, according to a Bangladesh Bank circular on Wednesday.

Bangladeshi nationals staying abroad have to submit several documents from Bangladesh missions abroad to open a bank account at home.

But the circular, sent to the managing directors and chief executives of all banks, said the Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit did not mandate any such paper submission.

The circular also states that Machine Readable Passport (MRP) and Electronic Passport (ePassport) are issued after a specific verifying process. Therefore, scheduled banks operating in Bangladesh do not require attestation separately from the embassies in opening bank accounts by the expatriate.

The central bank said the circular will be effective immediately.