Feb 1, 2009

Forex trading, remittances and coporate social responsibilities CSR

Bangladesh Bank has eased forex regulations by allowing all banks to issue international credit, debit, and pre-paid cards to foreign currency users. This would help in providing more facilities to exporters, travelers, and foreign investors. The amended policy would enable any government official, bank official, and financial organizations and faculty member of a recognized banking training institute to send a registration fee without approval of Bangladesh Bank, for participating in any training, seminar, or workshop abroad through approved dealers. Also the amendment to 1996 "Guidelines for Foreign Exchange Transaction (GFET)" made the requirement of Bank "Encashment Certificate" mandatory, against the money sent for registration with the Registrar of Joint Stock Companies (RJSC) in Bangladesh, for the proposed company. The circular also stated that the Bangladeshi students pursuing professional diploma/certificate courses abroad could now be sent foreign currency.

Bangladesh still far beyond the latest and featured developments. so happy with the old ones only. First worlds using dynamic easy, inexpensive safe internet payout solutions through IPSP co-Branded debit card cards or carbonated LOGO to the client's wallets.
The global remittance market is the major growth driver for mobile money transfer. The World Bank estimates the current market remittance market to be about $318 billion, on adding contribution from informal transactions, it increases to about $600 billion. The World Bank expects this market to grow to $72 trillion by the end of 2030.
The growth in remittances is mainly driven by the rise in migrants, who regularly send money to their families at home. Western Union estimates the global migration population to be 280 million by 2050. This growth would be driven by countries such as China, India, Mexico, and the Philippines.

According to World Bank, in 2007, migrant workers from developing countries sent home $240 billion, compared to $221 billion in 2006. The three major remittance-receiving countries in 2007, as reported by the World Bank, were India ($27 billion), China ($25.7 billion), and Mexico ($25 billion).
In many developing countries, particularly Asian countries, the money received from remittances is a major source of national income. For example in the Philippines, remittance contributes immensely to the country's GDP. Income from remittances is sometimes more than income from Foreign Direct Investment and International Aid donations in most recipient countries. Remittances are the second-largest sources of Bangladesh

Opportunities: The mobile money transfer industry has huge potential to tap the underbanked population and migrant workers to make remittances, using their mobile phones.

According to ABI Research, the mobile fund transfer market will offer approximately $8 billion revenue opportunities for mobile operators by 2012, which is more than $10 million in 2006.

Mobile Banking Coming of Age in India: Being the world's second-largest cellular market is one thing, but graduating into mobile banking is another. After a long wait, the Reserve Bank of India, the central bank of the country, recently came out with a draft guideline for mobile banking transactions, thus laying the foundation for telecom and banking sectors to come closer for the sake of customer convenience and of course, higher penetration. Though the provisions put forth some restrictive clauses in terms of the overall cap in transactions, market players were nonetheless encouraged to see the ball rolling, finally.

The RBI guidelines, released on September 19, allowed the banks – licensed, supervised, present, and having core banking solutions – in India to offer mobile banking facilities to select customers (holders of debit/credit cards) subject to RBI's approval and adherence to technology and security related stipulations. However, the limits for a single transaction and per day transactions were set at a lowly Rs 2,500 and Rs 5,000 (about $55 and $110) respectively. Also, no cross-border transaction was allowed and transactions based only on the Indian rupee (Rs) were permitted.
Laying the basic road map for the mobile banking sector, the bank said “The long term goal of mobile banking framework in India would be to enable funds transfer from account in one bank to any other account in the same or any other bank on a real-time basis irrespective of the mobile network a customer has subscribed to.”

However restrictive the provisions may appear, the RBI move did succeed in setting the ball rolling. Soon after the release of these guidelines, the department of telecommunications (DoT) reportedly revealed its plan to seek the apex bank's guidance on providing full-fledged mobile banking services to customers. The DoT move is aimed at allowing customers to virtually using mobile phones as debit or credit cards. These services, DoT observed, would not only bestow greater customer convenience but also raise revenues for the telecom operators from this sector.

Currently, only a few telecom operators including Bharti Telesoft and Vodafone offer some basic services in association with banks such ABN AMRO, HDFC, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Barclays, etc. While most of these players felt the provisions of RBI guidelines as limiting, they were nevertheless encouraged by the proposed move by the DoT, expecting that the joint endeavor by the ministry and the apex bank would speed up the process of opening up of the segment in not so distant future.

Bangladesh Bank permits banks in Bangladesh to establish drawing arrangements with Foreign banks and Exchange houses for facilitating remittance by Bangladeshi nationals living abroad. Persons willing to remit their earnings through official channels can buy either the Taka draft or the US dollar draft from these Foreign banks and Exchange houses having drawing arrangements with different banks in Bangladesh. Bangladeshi nationals living abroad can send Foreign Exchange very easily and directly to their own bank accounts maintained in Bangladesh or to their nominated person's / relative's bank accounts in Bangladesh.
Furthermore, recently banks have taken some major steps towards crediting the proceeds of remittances to the beneficiary's account promptly, maximum by 3(three) days.
The Foreign Banks, Exchange Houses and Subsidiaries / Overseas Branches of Bangladeshi Scheduled Banks have drawing arrangements/remittance facilities with different banks in Bangladesh, Inward remittance facilities.

Corporate Social Responsibilities of Bangladesh :
Bangladesh is a more mobile-friendly country than India, but far beyond to think of it. We are happy with the expensive time-consuming drafts system through exchange houses via subsidiaries. So many middlemen involved completing a circle of a single issue. Internet or web pay-out a solution through debit card cards co-branded and carbonated with the partner's LOGO to the client's wallets is easy inexpensive dynamic magical secured systems. The growth of the Private Banking sector in Bangladesh brings a revolution out of the Public corrupt vicious circle. This is thrust and promising HUGE sector of 15 billion USD by the year 2010 with 25-30% an incremental approach. Foreign exchange experts, professionals at home and abroad may come forward. our skyscraper, economy, and foreign exchange reserve come mostly out of wage earner laborers remittances. As a nation, we are pledged bound to provide with the latest inflows systems prevailed and enjoying worlds as a whole. That Will be the steps towards Digital Bangladesh a success.




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