In Bangladesh, there was a substantial increase in remittance inflow this past October. This follows a decline seen in September earlier this year. With the government encouraging banks to embrace remittance payments, this uptick is definitely a good sign.
Utilising the thorough data provided by the Bangladesh Bank, we can examine which banks received what in terms of remittance payments, and who the highest and lowest performers were.
Overall, Bangladesh received $1.239 billion in remittance in October from Bangladeshis living all over the world. In September, expatriate Bangladeshis sent back $1.138 billion, and in August, the figure was $1.411 billion.
As you can see, the total remittance figures fluctuate substantially, but generally stand beyond the $1.1 billion figure.
When it comes to which banks performed best and worst, the commercial state-owned banks took a total of $299,36 million combined from expatriate Bangladeshis, while specialised banks received $14.57 million.
These six commercial banks include Janata, Agrani, Rupali, BASIC, Sonali, and BDBL, and the two specialised banks are BKB and RAKUB. All of these banks are state-owned, and the more specialised banks took substantially less overall, owing to them focusing more on other services.
The banks that stood at the top, earning more than the others combined were the private commercial ones, namely Islami Bank Bangladesh Limited (IBBL), Dutch-Bangla Banks, and Mutual Trust Bank. Combined these earned $369.84 million, and individually $224.50 million, $93.51 million and $51.83 million, respectively. Earning $8.88 million were the nine foreign banks.
Four state-owned banks earned a combined total of almost $300 million. BDBL took no remittance at all, Agrani Bank earned $122.56 million, Sonali Bank took $87.68 million, Janata Bank $72.08 million, Rupali $16.87 million and BASIC bank $0.17 million.
Overall, the poorest performers when it comes to remittance taking are DBBL, Rajshahi Krishi, National Bank of Pakistan and Unnayan Bank (Rakub). All of those earned zero remittance.
Usually, the poor performers are NRB Banks, but the government encouraged these, allowing NRB Banks to take $0.76 million, NRB Commercial Bank $0.42 million and NRB Global Bank $0.55 million.
Sonali Bank (UK) Limited is authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority. Registered in England and Wales. Registered number 3792250. Registered Office 29-33 Osborn Street, London E1 6TD.