JEDDAH, 25 April 2003 — Pakistani expatriates in the Kingdom will soon be able to remit money home free of charge.
Habib Bank of Pakistan is joining hands with the Kingdom’s Al-Rajhi Banking and Investment Corporation to launch a scheme under which Pakistanis will be able to remit money without bank charges, said Khalid Bin Shaheen, vice president and director of Habib Bank Ltd., Gulf Region.
Shaheen was in the Kingdom to give the final touches to the proposed scheme. Addressing expatriates here at the Consulate General of Pakistan, Shaheen noted that Al-Rajhi Bank now charges remitters a fixed transfer fee for each transaction. But after the new scheme is launched, Habib Bank will, in cooperation with the State Bank of Pakistan, reimburse the fee to Al-Rajhi on behalf of the remitters. However, he added, “this benefit will be available only to the customers sending more than $100 to their family in Pakistan for domestic expenses. And this facility will not be applicable to bank drafts.”
“Once launched, the new facility will be available at all the remittance centers and branches of Al-Rajhi Bank for Pakistanis who want to send money to any bank in Pakistan for domestic purposes,” Shaheen later told Arab News. “Money sent for commercial purposes does not come under this scheme.”
Shaheen said the charge-free remittance scheme was also aimed at curbing the illegal “Hawala” and “Hundi” systems of remittance.
He said that Zakir Mahmood, president of Habib Bank and Khaleeq Kiani, head of the bank’s overseas network, were keen to provide services to Pakistanis who want to send money to their families. This is one of the reasons why the bank sends its officials at regular intervals to various cities in the Kingdom, Shaheen added.
During his stay in the Kingdom Shaheen also visited various areas in Jeddah, Riyadh and Dammam and spoke to Pakistani workers. He also met members of the large Pakistani community in Madinah and Makkah.
The representative of Habib Bank in Jeddah, Sibghatullah Qureshi, told Arab News that there was an increase of about 80 percent in the use of proper banking channels for remittances to Pakistan over the previous year.
