KARACHI – Launched to facilitate secure, cheap, and rapid remittances by overseas Pakistani’s, the Pakistan Remittance Initiative (PRI) is a joint initiative of the State Bank of Pakistan, Ministry of Overseas Pakistanis and Ministry of Finance.
Remittances play a crucial role in Pakistan’s economy, providing a much-needed inflow of dollars to boost foreign exchange reserves. Ranking amongst the top 5 remittance-receiving countries, Pakistan depends heavily on this inflow for building domestic financial resilience. In the past, the high cost of remittance and difficult procedures acted as major obstacles and caused senders to either refrain from sending money back home or use informal channels such as Hundi and Hawala for the purpose.
Therefore, a sizable amount of remittances transferred to Pakistan was through informal channels. By reducing these constraints, the PRI initiative is working with Banks to increase the share of formal remittance receipts.
By partnering with leading financial institutions such as JS Bank, the PRI initiative helps expats in more than 200 countries send money home to their loved ones in a convenient and cost-effective manner.
Remittances can be transferred through registered PRI service providers across the globe and the remitted money can be claimed from JS Bank’s nationwide branch network at great exchange rates, backed by a secure and swift infrastructure. Through this initiative, JS Bank will also support SBP’s drive to discourage illegal money transfers which cause a loss to the national exchequer.
Basir Shamsie, President and CEO – JS Bank stated, “Our objective is to support the millions of Pakistanis abroad who need to get money to their family and friends in Pakistan in a simple, easy and convenient manner. The PRI initiative has made life easy and we need to ensure that people know this and get their money in a legal way.”
Committed towards its role as a catalyst towards the progress and prosperity of Pakistan, the Bank hopes to continue this journey of success by offering a wide range of value-added financial offerings and services.
