DHAKA: City bank Ltd of Bangladeshi has opened a branch in Kuala Lumpur to tap on the lucrative remittance market by Bangladesh workers in Malaysia amounting to US$1 billion (RM3.3 billion) a year.

City Bank Ltd (CBL) opened its first remittance branch in the city and it will add another 4 branches nationwide by year end.

“There are more than 1 million Bangladesh workers in country and another 1.4 million workers are expected to enter the country,” CBL Sdn Bhd’s chairman, Aziz Al Kaiser told reporters at the branch opening at Leboh Pasar Besar in the city on Tuesday.

The company in Malaysia has a paid-up capital of RM4.1 million and had been given approval by Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) to open remittance branches in Malaysia subject to the central bank’s approval.

BNM had taken eight months to approve the remittance license of the bank.

The Malaysian Insider was made to understand that CBL has plans to open 25 branches throughout the country.

The ambitious plans were buoyed by strong worker movement from Bangladesh to Malaysia. The recent increase of flight frequency from Dhaka to KLIA from one per day to five per day is a testimony of things to come.

CBL which is one of the pioneer private banks in Bangladesh is the sole franchisee of American Express in Bangladesh. The bank which started its operations in 1983 recorded a net profit of Bangladesh Taka 400 million (RM16.8 million) for the financial year ended June 30, 2013.

Aziz said during the launch that one of the main reasons for the establishment of the remittance centre was to aid Bangladeshi wage earners in Malaysia to remit their monies back home.

Ease of communications and the state of art technology would be the unique selling propositions of CBL.

Source: themalaysianinsider.com
BDST: 1134 HRS, SEP 10, 2013
SR/BSK