Bangladesh Bank (BB) has relaxed the provision of taking approval for partnering with foreign money exchange agents to facilitate remittance transfers from abroad through legal channels.

In a circular issued on Wednesday, the central bank directed the chief executives of all commercial banks to expand their network with offshore foreign exchange agents.
Earlier, banks had to take approval from Bangladesh Bank for partnering with any foreign money exchanges.

According to the policy of Bangladesh Bank, foreign nationals or permanent residents of any country can partner with local banks to facilitate the transfers of foreign currencies.

A limit was also placed on the volume of remittances that could be brought in annually through an exchange agent or from a country to prevent hundi and non-remittance transactions.

Bangladesh Bank has recently lifted that limit amid the dollar crisis, allowing to bring any amount of remittance. Also, the expatriates or money exchanges do not need any kind of documents to send remittances.

Meanwhile, in the first seven days of August, expatriates sent $550 million to the country. As of the current exchange rate (Tk 95 per dollar), this amount is Tk 52.25 billion, which is around 48.20 per cent higher than the same period last year.

The expatriates sent $371 million during the same period last year.

Remittance inflow stood at $21.03 billion in FY 22, which is 15.12 percent lower than the previous year.