The World Bank (WB) Thursday flow of said remittances to developing countries including Bangladesh, India and China is expected to reach US$351 billion this year as the high oil prices in the middle-east has helped the nations.

The global lender in its Migration and Development Brief report, released Thursday in Geneva, also said the worldwide remittances, including those to high-income countries, will reach $406 billion in the current calendar year.

The Bank's report received by the FE said India is expected to secure top position on the list of the remittance recipients in 2011 with its $58 billion inflow, China second position with $57 billion, Mexico third with $24 billion and the Philippines fourth with $23 billion.

Other large remittance recipients include Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Vietnam, Egypt and Lebanon, the WB report said.

The WB said while the economic slowdown is dampening employment prospects for migrant workers in some high-income countries, global remittances, nevertheless, are expected to stay on a growth path and, by 2014, may reach $515 billion.

The Washington-based lender observed that high oil prices have provided a cushion for remittances to Central Asia from Russia and to South and East Asia from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries.

Also, a depreciation of currencies of some large migrant-exporting countries (including Mexico, India and Bangladesh) created additional incentives for remittances as goods and services in these countries became cheaper in U.S. dollar terms, it added.

"Despite the global economic crisis that has impacted private capital flows, remittance flows to developing countries have remained resilient, posting an estimated growth of 8 percent in 2011," said Hans Timmer, Director of the Bank's Development Prospects Group.

"Remittance flows to all developing regions have grown this year, for the first time since the financial crisis," he added.

The WB report said remittance flows to four of the six World Bank-designated developing regions grew faster than expected, by 11 percent to Eastern Europe and Central Asia, 10.1 percent to South Asia, 7.6 percent to East Asia and Pacific and 7.4 percent to Sub-Saharan Africa, despite the difficult economic conditions in Europe and other destinations of African migrants.

The Bank expects continued growth in remittance flows, by 7.3 percent in 2012, 7.9 percent in 2013 and 8.4 percent in 2014.

The WB, however, pointed out some serious downside risks for international remittance and migration flows.

"Persistent unemployment in Europe and the U.S. is affecting employment prospects of existing migrants and hardening political attitudes toward new immigration.

Volatile exchange rates and uncertainty about the direction of oil prices also present further risks to the outlook for remittances," it said.

Source: The Daily Finance/ Bangladesh/ 2nd Dec 2011

Eastern Bank Limited (EBL), a leading private sector bank in Bangladesh, has won the global award for brand excellence in banking and financial services category.

The award was announced on November 25, during World Brand Congress held in mumbai, India, says a press release.  EBL is the first Bangladeshi bank to receive the honour.

A I Chowdhury OBE, director of EBL, received the award from Dr Alok Bharadwaj, chairman of World Brand Congress, at a gala award presentation ceremony at Taj Lands End hotel, Mumbai.

Ali Reza Iftekhar, managing director and chief executive officer of the Bank, was also present.

This year over six hundred individuals and organisations from seventy countries were considered in selecting awardees in various categories.

Source: The Daily Independent/ Bangladesh/ 2nd Dec 2011

Bangladesh Bank governor Dr Atiur Rahman has claimed that the per capita income of the people is rising at 24 per cent and the number of poor people has halved to 30 per cent of the population from the 60 per cent earlier. Without giving any figure of existing per capita income, the BB chief said the central bank is working hard to reach out the banking service to grassroots level. Atiur said so far 9.5 million farmers have opened bank account depositing only Tk 10 each.

“Still 40 per cent people are out of any banking network,” he said, asking the commercial banks to come up with innovative ideas so that the remaining section could be brought under the network.
He was speaking as chief guest at a seminar on ‘electronic and mobile payments, financial inclusion for the unbanked’ on the first day of a three-day e-Asia 2001 summit at Bangabandhu International Conference Centre in the city.

Asif Saleh of BRAC Bank, A K M Shirin Ahmed of Dutch-Bangla Bank and Greg Chen, regional representative for south Asia CGAP, also took part in the discussion.

The tender floating and all recruitment process in the central bank have gone online, Atiur said, citing  various examples of how banking services are becoming technology-friendly.

Focusing on expansion of mobile banking in the country, the BB governor said that the central bank already gave a policy guideline to the commercial banks for giving a level playing field while introducing the services.
The lack of confidence among the people in the system is the main barrier to  expanding mobile banking, he pointed out.

In this connection, Atiur said an anti-money laundering mission is working so that people do not lose confidence over the banking system.

Already 20 banks have been given license for mobile banking and two banks introduced it, he informed the conference. He observed that the mobile banking would immensely benefit the mass people and reduce the cost of micro-financing.
The BB governor said a system is being developed so that the government’s subsidy can go to the real farmers directly without any middlemen.

 He hopes that the garment workers, students and many other sections of people would also be able to use electronic payment system very soon. 

Atiur appreciated the role of overseas workers of the country and girls working hard in the apparel sector for keeping the economy vibrant.

Source: The Daily Independent/ Bangladesh/ 2nd Dec 2011

China's central bank cut reserve requirements for commercial lenders on Wednesday for the first time in three years, a policy shift to ease credit strains and shore up an economy running at its weakest pace since 2009.

China's policy change came just hours before coordinated action by major central banks, including the Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank, to ease credit strains in world markets buffeted by the euro zone debt crisis.

Global markets rallied on the combination of central bank news.

Source: The Daily Sun/ Bangladesh/ 2nd Dec 2011

TOKYO: Asian shares rallied to two-week highs on Thursday, building on strong global gains after the world's six major central banks moved to tame a liquidity crunch for European banks by providing cheaper dollar funding.

Financial spreadbetters expect the leading European benchmark indexes to rise on Thursday, extending a sharp four-session rally on increased risk appetite following the central bank joint action.

The U.S. Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank and the central banks of Canada, Britain, Japan and Switzerland said on Wednesday they would lower the cost of existing dollar swap lines by 50 basis points from December 5, and arrange bilateral swaps to provide liquidity for other currencies.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan jumped 4.4 percent to its highest since mid-November, rising above a 25-day moving average, after U.S. stocks soared 4 percent on Wednesday.

Japan's Nikkei also surged well above its 25-day moving average, closing up 1.9 percent.

Chinese shares outperformed, with the Hang Seng Index surging close to 6 percent after Beijing cut the reserve requirement ratio for commercial lenders on Wednesday for the first time in three years, signaling a policy shift as global weakness weighs on China's economy.

"It's clearly a risk-on day given everything that happened overnight," said Su-Lin Ong, senior economist at RBC Capital Markets.

Industrial metals such as copper, zinc and aluminum jumped as funding strains eased, while the policy step by China, a huge commodity importer, lifted commodity currencies. The Australian dollar stood at $1.0255, off an earlier high of $1.0280, having jumped 3 percent on Wednesday.

The euro changed hands at $1.3455 after jumping to a one-week high of $1.3531 on Wednesday while the dollar index slumped to a two-week trough at 77.923. The index stood at 78.35 on Thursday.

"The moves were cheered by markets, as it shows central banks are willing to work together to ease Europe's sovereign debt crisis," said Stan Shamu, strategist at IG Markets.

But some analysts were more cautious, saying the central banks' moves just bought more time for Europe as it battles to contain its worsening debt crisis.

"This just means they expanded emergency measures. The more important point is whether Europe is going to have a bigger bailout fund and that's still up in the air," said Soichiro Monji, chief strategist at Daiwa SB Investments, in Tokyo.

Source: The Daily Sun/ Bangladesh/ 2nd Dec 2011