Woes of NRBs
It is very encouraging news that our private commercial banks are considering smoothening the process and removing bottlenecks for NRBs sending foreign currency to BD. However, they can quickly learn from what other countries have already done in this area to encourage such inflow of foreign currency by providing some level of good service and no transfer fees. For example, Indian private banking sector has established very good relationship with US major financial institutions in order to help NRIs send foreign exchange to India without any fees, and the money is often timely dispersed to their relatives or banks the same day.
I currently pay fees in the US banks to send money to a very reputable private bank in Dhaka. The bank in Dhaka then again charges transaction fees on top of what is being shared between the banks in the form of intra-bank exchange fees. This double dipping is definitely not helping. No one knows why, but it also takes 3-5 days to clear the funds in Dhaka.
Maybe our PCBs can do the same for NRBs as Indian banks have done for their NRIs and create a win-win situation for all.
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