LAHORE - The NBP has experienced a growth in its home remittance’s market share despite a reduction in home remittances by 3.08 percent in FY2017, said S H Irtiza Kazmi, Group Head of Global Home Remittances at NBP.
This turnaround has been made possible by the keen interest that the NBP management has shown in improving the overall business for the bank. Continuous efforts have been made by NBP to provide superior services to its remittance customers through its extensive online branch network of more than 1,400 branches and 1100 ATMs, new alliances with international money sending businesses (MSBs) and through focused marketing of its products both in the local as well as international markets. Home remittances have been one of the major factors sustaining the economy over the past several years. Special focus by the Ministry of Finance and the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) through Pakistan Remittance Initiative (PRI) has helped increase the remittances to Pakistan through legal channels from $11.20 billion in 2011 to $19.30 billion in 2017.
Remittances volume from Australia to NBP increased by 150 percent during June 2017 alone. This was the result of one of several marketing campaigns that NBP launched during April-June quarter. One of the marketing campaigns with a leading MSB in GCC (including KSA and UAE) resulted in volume growth of 16 percent month-on-month. Yet another marketing campaign with a leading bank in KSA showed volume increase of 17 percent. Several similar campaigns are also planned to be launched in the second half of 2017.
NBP is also working closely with the Ministry of Overseas Employment and HR development and Pakistani embassies/consulates across the globe to educate the existing and future expatriates regarding NBP’s remittance services. NBP has taken a lead in promoting legal channels to send remittances to Pakistan and discouraging Hundi/Hawala which are the key factors hampering the growth of formal remittance business in Pakistan through legal/banking channels.
OUR STAFF REPORTER