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Expat bank won’t be viable

Experts term the move unnecessary

Sajjadur Rahman
The government move to set up an expatriate welfare bank would not be viable with experts terming the initiative 'unnecessary'.
"It won't be viable. It will be a superfluous move,” said Khondkar Ibrahim Khaled, a former deputy governor of Bangladesh Bank (BB), now the chairman of Bangladesh Krishi Bank.
Dr Thsneem Siddiqui, an expen on migrant workers, hailed the government for giving importance to the problems faced by migrants, but said a separate bank for them will not be able to provide required services.
“The existing banks that have loan products for overseas job seekers have failed to attract clients,” she said. "It's impossible to provide the services with one, two or five branches.”
The government announced that it would set up an expatriate bank to support job seekers walling to go abroad with easy loan. The proposed bank will also help around 60 lakh expatriate Bangladeshis with different services including faster delivery of their money.
The government high-ups including Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina have already agreed on the move, officials at the employment ministry said. The minister for expatriate welfare is also moving fast and held meetings with the finance ministry and the BB on setting up the bank.
Currently, some banks -- Agrani, Pubali and Mercantile - have loan products for overseas jobseekers.
Pubali Bank with its countrywide network of 371 branches lent to around 100 job seekers in 2008.
“We have targeted to serve 500 job seekers this year," said Helal Ahmed Chowdhury, managing director of the bank
Agrani Bank that has over 1,000 branches across the country also has the loan product, but has so far failed to get expected response.
“Perhaps, we didn't publicise much," said Syed Abu Naser Bukhtear Ahmed, managing director of the bank.
Meanwhile, the BB has suggested the government set up the proposed expatriate bank as a specialised one instead of a scheduled bank, a senior official concerned said.
The BB made the observation following the Ministry of Expatriates' Welfare and Overseas Employment move to establish the bank as a scheduled one.
“Setting up the bank as a scheduled one won't be feasible,” said the official.
He said a scheduled bank needs a capital ofTk 400 crore.
"We have recently informed the ministry of the BB's stance in this regard," the official said. “The bank can be a specialised one like Karmasangsthan (employment) Bank,” he suggested.
Employment ministry officials however said they have the fund required for setting up the bank
"We have around Tk 300 crore fund under the ministry. Many investors at home and abroad
have also shown interest to assist us in setting up the bank," said a ministry official.
Tasneem Siddiqui criticised the ministry move to use the workers' fund worth around Tk 350 crore. She said every worker who has gone abroad depositedTk 1,300 each to the fund.
“The government has no right to set up the bank with the workers' fund," she said. "The fund must come from the revenue budget."
Ibrahim Khaled suggested the government should provide the services like it is doing with the low-cost housing, SME and women entrepreneurs'loans.
"Separate divisions and wings can be opened at different offices to support the overseas job seekers," he added.
In Bangladesh 48 scheduled banks are in operations. Of those, four are state-owned commercial banks, 30 private commercial banks, nine foreign commercial banks and five are state-owned specialised banks.
sajjad@thedailystar.net