PayPal service to enhance inflow of remittances

The flow of remittances into the country is expected to enhance further in the upcoming days as the global online payment system of PayPal has already launched its cross border payment service “Xoom” in the country.

“Any PayPal account holder can easily send money to Bangladesh within in a short time and the process will encourage the expatriate Bangladeshis to use this legal channel,” M Ataur Rahman Prodhan, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Rupali Bank Limited told BSS.

Through the service, he said, not only the freelancers, but also the Non Residence Bangladeshis (NRBs) will get benefits as they can also use the hassle-free electronic channel, which will increase the inflow of remittances.

Under the service, M Abu Nasher, Public Relations officer of the ICT Division, said, NRBs in the United States (US) can now send money within 40 minutes to two hours to a bank account in Bangladesh directly from their PayPal account via Xoom.

“PayPal is available in 203 countries in the world. Out of the 203, PayPal provides its full services in 29 countries while it has only inbound service for 103 countries,” he added.

For Bangladesh, he said the inbound service has been started from the US as the country is covering 54 percent outsourcing market of Bangladesh. “The service will be expanded for Bangladesh to other countries soon,” he added.

Sajeeb Wazed Joy, information and communication technology (ICT) adviser to the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, inaugurated the international gateway for online payment as the chief guest at a function on October 19 at the Bangabandhu International Conference Centre (BICC) in the city.

Under the Xoom service, freelancers can use the service free of cost if the amount of the remittance is above US$1,000, but one will have to pay $5 as service charge if the amount is below US$1000.

One can send money $10,000 at a time and the customers can receive the service from nine commercial banks - Sonali Bank, Rupali Bank, Agrani Bank, Janata Bank, Social Islami Bank, Uttara Bank, Pubali Bank, City Bank and Islami Bank.

Nasher said PayPal account holder can send money to the nine banks account through Sonali Bank as the bank and PayPal inked the agreement to operate the services in the country.

He also expected that the service will increase the inflow of remittances as the freelancers and NRBs can use the low cost legal channel.

According to Bangladesh Bank data, migrant workers sent $566.57 million in the first 13 days of October in FY18, which was $142.61 million up from the same period of the previous fiscal.

The country received a total of $15316.91 million in FY15, $14931.15 million in FY16 and $12,769 million in FY17.

Source: BSS