Bangladesh gets $1.56bn in remittance in February

Bangladeshi expatriates have sent home more than $1.56 billion through the banking channel in February.

The figure is around 20.3% down from the $1.95 billion received in the previous month, according to the latest data published by the Bangladesh Bank on Wednesday.

The remittances received in February took the total in the first eight months of the ongoing 2022-23 fiscal year to more than $14 billion with a 4.26% year-on-year rise.

Bangladesh saw inward remittance slump by 15.12% to $21.03 billion year on year in 2021-22 after growing by more than 36% to $24.78 billion in 2020-21.

Measures taken in tandem by the central bank and the government helped remittances to grow to some extent as the inflow rose in July and August last year before starting to fall again. The remittances then turned around in November.

In recent months, the central bank further eased paperwork requirements for remittances, while the government continued cash incentives on the money sent by expatriates to encourage them to use the legal channels.

Hundi, an illegal channel of making cross-border transactions, however, continued to affect the inward remittances.

In this illegal system, expatriate Bangladeshis pay Hundi agents in foreign currencies abroad and local agents pay the expatriates’ relatives in taka in Bangladesh.

The central bank bolstered its efforts to stop Hundi as the foreign currency reserves of the country kept dwindling. It also urged expatriates to send money through the banks, reminding them of legal consequences for using illegal means to conduct cross-border transactions.