Prime Bank launches real-time remittance service for Singapore, UK subsidiaries

Expatriate Bangladeshis sent US$ 436.2 million home last year, according to the Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training (BMET). In the same year, expatriates from the UK remitted $1.41 billion.

Through RemitPrime, expatriate Bangladeshis can transfer remittance in real-time to any account of Prime Bank and to any bKash wallet across the country.

For all other banks, remittance will be transferred instantly as per the BEFTN transaction cycle.

Along with remittance, the new service also ensures payment of 2 percent incentive instantly.

RemitPrime also provides real-time information on the transaction to its users.

Expatriates from Bangladesh, India, and the Philippines, residing in Singapore, can now send money to their respective home countries through RemitPrime services by downloading Prime Bank’s Internet Banking mobile app ‘Prime Bank App’ from ‘Apple’s App Store’ and ‘Google’s Play Store’ or by logging in www.remitprime.com.

Prime Bank has plans to extend its online remittance payment services to major remittance corridors like US, EU, Gulf countries, Japan, Korea, Malaysia and so on.

Prime Bank's Acting Managing Director and CEO Faisal Rahman said, “Our customers maintaining accounts with Prime Bank will enjoy real-time fund transfer against their remittance from abroad. We also can make transfers to bKash accounts in real-time with RemitPrime.

“With this new service, our customers are enjoying the convenience of receiving remittance at their doorsteps round-the-clock. We believe these services will inspire expatriate Bangladeshis to send more money through the legal channel and boost the flow of remittance into the country. The remitters from other major corridors like KSA, Malaysia, and other countries will also receive similar facilities soon."

Highlighting the capabilities of the RemitPrime mobile applications, Shams Abdullah Muhaimin, Prime Bank's Head of Transaction Banking, said: “RemitPrime platform is built on a machine learning technology which has automated majority of manual activities.

“The system can process thousands of transactions in minutes with real-time fund transfer to beneficiary accounts 24X7. The mobile app version of the application is first of its kind launched by a local bank overseas.

“The system can now be offered as a white-label solution to different overseas remittance service providers working in the Bangladesh corridor.”

Prime Bank has two remittance subsidiaries, one is in Singapore - Prime Exchange Co Pte Ltd- which has three branches located at Desker Road, Jurong East and at Joo Koon.

Another is in the UK named PBL Exchange (UK) Ltd having three branches in London, Birmingham and Oldham and 35 agent locations well distributed throughout the UK.