Standard Chartered Bank, in partnership with bKash, the largest mobile financial service provider in Bangladesh, and Valyou, Malaysia’s leading digital remittance provider, on Wednesday announced the launch of the first blockchain-based cross-border remittance service in Bangladesh, facilitating instant transfers from Malaysia. The service is powered by innovative blockchain technology by Ant Group Co., Ltd. (“Ant Group”).
Wage earner remittance by Bangladeshi nationals working abroad is one of the key pillars to the Bangladesh economy and a major contributor to the nation’s foreign currency reserve. Malaysia is an important part of this remittance ecosystem. Through this service, the Bangladeshi diaspora in Malaysia can send wage remittance via Valyou to a beneficiary in Bangladesh who is a bKash wallet user.
Standard Chartered Bank is the fund settlement bank and regulatory approval holder for the service, which was co-created by Standard Chartered, Ant Group, bKash and Valyou to cater to the Bangladeshi diaspora based in Malaysia. Ant Group’s applied blockchain technology helps streamline the remittance process, radically improving the speed of delivery, enhancing transparency of the process and drastically reducing costs while ensuring better security measures when sending money across borders. The service is in the final stages of commercial testing and will be available to customers in Bangladesh and Malaysia soon.
Naser Ezaz Bijoy, CEO of Standard Chartered Bank, Bangladesh said: “Remittance is an important driver of our economy, contributing vital foreign currency to the national exchequer while supporting the livelihoods of millions of families. With our partners bKash, Valyou and Ant Group, we are delighted to be able to introduce a new-generation technological solution that will make the remittance experience simple and faster, by presenting the service available 24x7, including from the convenience of the remitters mobile phone. We hope this new service will benefit the end-users and contribute to the growing utilization of formal remittance channels.”
Mr Kamal Quadir, CEO of bKash Ltd said: “Malaysia is one of the major remittance earner hubs for Bangladesh. This partnership will give seamless remittance sending experience to the Bangladeshi expatriates there who can now send money from their digital wallets in Malaysia to a bKash account in Bangladesh through Standard Chartered Bank. After receiving money, the recipients can easily cash out from 240,000 nearby agent points across the country and also avail a wide range of other bKash services. This technological integration will bring great convenience to both the recipients and the senders and will contribute further to our foreign remittance earnings.”
Valyou SDN BHD said:” We continue to offer ease and convenience to our customers especially during these challenging times and Bangladeshi’s in Malaysia are able to access the bKash service via the Valyou Mobile Wallet. Today customers can Cash-In using Online Banking, ATMs and by a network of over 1300 merchants offering Cash in Cash Out Service. Valyou has always been in the forefront of adopting new technology aimed to enhance customer efficiency. We believe that this blockchain technology integration will save cost and time without compromising safety and security of the remittance transaction sent from Valyou to bKash.”
-rmc/