The soft launch of remittance facilities by Al-Rajhi Bank's Tahweel Al-Rajhi and Bank Albilad's Injaz is expected to start this week, said Khalid Bin Shaheen, NBP's senior executive vice president, who was in Jeddah recently to oversee the arrangements.
So far NBP, Pakistan's largest commercial bank, has had such an agreement with Samba Financial Group.
Shaheen said the new deals were likely to boost remittances to Pakistan, which in recent months have recorded remarkable growth in money received from its overseas nationals.
According to the latest figures released by the State Bank of Pakistan, the nation's central bank, home remittances in March was $763 million, a growth of 30 percent over what was received in February. Similarly, in the nine-month period ending in March, remittances were up 28 percent over the corresponding period of last year.
March remittances from Saudi Arabia also reflected the global trend. Pakistan received from here $193.91 million, which was $44.46 million or 30 percent more over February figure.
Shaheen said the credit for the growth goes to the structural changes that have taken place following the launch of Pakistan Remittance Initiative (PRI) in August 2009. PRI, a joint venture of the Ministry of Finance, Ministry for Overseas Pakistanis and the State Bank, is an effort to increase the flow of remittances through official channels.
Along with PRI, the State Bank has launched Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS), which has drastically reduced the time it takes for funds to be settled between the many banks in Pakistan.
Shaheen said the deals with Al-Rajhi and Bank Albilad as well as Samba ensure free of cost cash to cash transfer through large number of NBP branches in Pakistan. "No account is required for this service. Payment will be made on proper identification," he said.
Instant electronic transfer from account to account is also free of charge. NBP has reduced the requirement of minimum balance of Rs.3,000 unlike other banks which have set the limit at Rs.10,000.
