DFCC introduces instant money transfer for foreign remittances
With the Sri Lankan Government expecting US$ 10 billion in foreign remittances to flow into the country by 2016, DFCC Vardana Bank ( DVB) launched the country’s first Lanka Money Transfer ( LMT) service for workers abroad to credit to their beneficiaries in Sri Lanka. The service will be available from this month.
Speaking to the Business Times on the sidelines of the launch at the Cinnamon Lakeside in Colombo last week, DVB Direc- tor and CEO, Lakshman Silva said, “There are many remittance models in Sri Lanka such as remittance schemes developed by financial institutions where money can be transferred only to that particular financial institution. But the uniqueness in DVB LMT is that the person who sends money to Sri Lanka has to open an account with DVB or any of the partner banks signed in the agreement.”
Adding to that Mr. Silva noted that when money is transferred through DVB, there will be a record of remittances credited to local banks. People who have sent money over the years, when they visit Sri Lanka to borrow from a bank, don’t have records to prove they have remitted money. Therefore, when they send the money to a direct account for a period of time, bankers can monitor the remittances coming from overseas and track records.
The LMT system is available in most foreign countries. The person who approaches the assigned centres can credit the money to the designated account and immediately transfer to Sri Lanka. “Our servers are linked to the local banks and they can automatically upload their remittances that are credited to their own accounts. The locals can withdraw the money even through ATM’s,” he said.
DVB has partnered with an extensive network of leading banks such as Regional Development Bank, Lanka Orix Finance PLC, HDFC Bank, Sanasa Bank, Amãna Bank and Union Bank PLC. There are approximately 1.2 million migrant workers from Sri Lanka who save their earnings and remit their money to Sri Lanka in order to support their families and improve their quality of life. LMT helps them achieve this objective by directly remitting the money to their family members’ accounts at a lower cost, he said.
DVB is the first Sri Lankan bank and one of the first in the world to partner with other banks to introduce a remittance money transferring mechanism in Sri Lanka. LMT is a Sri Lankan product and therefore DVB can guarantee that all charges incurred for transferring money will flow back into Sri Lanka. LMT will undoubtedly support the country’s remittance mechanism in order to help achieve the above target which is of national interest, he added.
(RM)