Trade Chronicle May - June 2020

TRADE CHRONICLE
Transfast partners with Habib Bank Ltd
for global remittances
Transfast, a leading cross-border
payments service provider with
presence in over 140 countries, has
partnered with Habib Bank Limited
(HBL), the largest commercial bank with
over 1700 branches in Pakistan, to
facilitate expatriates around the globe
on sending money to Pakistan.
The remittance facility between
Transfast and HBL is now available to
the Pakistani expatriates globally. This
partnership further strengthens
Transfast’s network in Pakistan and
provides an option to customers to
receive money from over 1700
branches of Habib Bank across
Pakistan.
“HBL is one of the most esteemed
financial institutions in Pakistan and it is
an honor to partner with them. Transfast
is fully committed to offer competitive
pricing, fast transfer of funds and
personalized customer engagement,”
said Samir Vidhate, SVP & MD,
Transfast. “Through this partnership we
will provide our Pakistani customer base
with more convenient and accessible
ways to collect money from any branch
of HBL in Pakistan and to send money
to any bank account in the country.”
Faisal Noor Lalani, Head International
Banking, HBL remarked ‘’I would like to
take this opportunity to thank Mr.
Vidhate for coming to Pakistan. I look
forward to giving full support to the
entire teams of both the institutions in
my capacity, to make our partnership
fruitful. This is a proud moment for HBL
as this new arrangement will be
beneficial to all the customers who look
to make fast international money
transfers to HBL Pakistan. Together, we
look forward to providing excellent
services to our customers with
commitment to banking excellence for a
better tomorrow.’’
Remittances account for 6% of
Pakistan’s GDP and the government
has offered several incentives to
encourage even more cash flow into the
country. According to the initial
estimates from the State Bank of
Pakistan, the country received a record
$21.84 billion in remittances in 2019.
That number is expected to go up as
analysts predict that more than eight
million overseas Pakistanis will continue
to send money back home with
remittances poised to hit $23 billion.
Bank Alfalah innovates
to assist Ehsaas beneficiaries
As the Government of Pakistan
continues to assist beneficiaries across
the country under the Ehsaas
Emergency Cash Disbursement
Programme 2020, Bank Alfalah has
introduced an innovative solution to
cater to beneficiaries whose biometric
verification is not possible for multiple
reasons, thus ensuring support for such
beneficiaries for cash withdrawal from
their account.
Many beneficiaries of Gilgit-Baltistan,
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and Azad
Jammu & Kashmir as well as migrated
beneficiaries from these regions who
were facing problems in biometric
verification can now visit any of the
designated Bank Alfalah branches open
to facilitate them with their CNIC and
phone. The CNIC number is verified
using NADRA’s Verisys system, and a
two-part One-Time Password (OTP) is
generated. Entering the code and the
Verisys report into the database
confirms the identity of the Ehsaas
beneficiary and subsequently they can
immediately withdraw their funds from
their account from the branch itself.
“We understand that the demographics
of our remote areas are diverse, and we
acknowledge the need to leverage
technology to assist all
our beneficiaries,” said
Yahya Khan, Group
H e a d - D i g i t a l
Banking. “With this
f a c i l i t y, e l d e r l y
beneficiaries or those
w i t h a p h y s i c a l
disability can continue
to benefit from the
G o v e r n m e n t ’ s
scheme; Bank Alfalah is proud to be an
innovator grounded in empathy for its
citizens in this challenging time.”
The Ehsaas Emergency Cash
Disbursement is claimed to be the
largest social welfare fund in Pakistan’s
history, valued at over PKR 144 billion.
Bank Alfalah, an exclusive partner of the
program serving the northernmost
areas of the country, has so far
disbursed over PKR 28.3 billion.
TRADE CHRONICLE - May.~ June. 2020 - Page # 27