Bangladesh Bank (BB) is exploring whether Bangladeshi lenders can open branches in the Maldives and use alternative currency-settlement arrangements to make it easier and cheaper for more than 100,000 Bangladeshi workers there to send earnings home through formal channels.
The move comes as remittances from the Maldives fell 16.4 per cent to about $118 million in fiscal year 2025-26 from $141.1 million a year earlier, while workers continue to face high transfer costs and difficulties converting the Maldivian rufiyaa for formal remittance transactions.
BB Governor Md Mostaqur Rahman has written to Maldives Monetary Authority (MMA) Governor Ahmed Munawar seeking cooperation on the initiative, a senior central bank official told BSS.
“We are trying to open branches of Bangladeshi banks in the Maldives to ensure that remittances come through formal channels,” the official said.
“We are waiting for a reply.”
BB has also held an online meeting with the Bangladesh mission in the Maldives to discuss opening bank branches and strengthening formal channels for workers to send money home.
BRAC Bank and National Bank are among private commercial banks that have already conducted feasibility studies on opening branches there, according to the official, reports BSS.
Banks from Sri Lanka, Pakistan and India already operate in the Maldives, providing a possible model for Bangladeshi lenders.
Any Bangladeshi bank expansion, however, would require regulatory approvals and cooperation between authorities in both countries.
The push is not limited to physical bank branches.
In an 8 October letter to the MMA governor, Rahman proposed three mechanisms aimed at making remittance transfers safer, more transparent and less costly.
The first is to explore settlement in Maldivian rufiyaa through an appropriate arrangement under the Asian Clearing Union (ACU). Under such a system, beneficiaries in Bangladesh would receive the equivalent amount in taka through authorised dealer banks.
The second would allow licensed banks and money-transfer operators in the Maldives to accept eligible travel-related payments in rufiyaa from Bangladeshi nationals travelling there. Authorised dealer banks in Bangladesh could issue taka-denominated cards, with settlement handled through an agreed regulatory mechanism.
The third proposal is a bilateral currency-swap arrangement between Bangladesh and the Maldives to facilitate repatriation of Bangladeshi workers’ earnings.
All three options would require regulatory approval and compliance with the laws of both countries.
BB has also offered to hold further discussions with the MMA through a joint delegation of central bank officials and representatives of the Bangladesh mission in the Maldives. Those talks would focus on regulatory requirements, operating arrangements and settlement mechanisms.
The effort reflects a persistent problem for Bangladeshi workers in the island nation.
More than 200,000 foreign workers were employed in the Maldives in 2024, including over 100,000 Bangladeshis, according to data cited in BB’s remittance proposal.
Yet banks and exchange houses are often reluctant to directly accept the local rufiyaa for remittance transfers.
That forces some workers to first buy US dollars through the informal or curb market before sending money home through banks or exchange houses. Formal transfers can also carry high commissions, raising the overall cost.
Those frictions can push workers towards hundi and other informal channels, reducing the amount of money recorded through Bangladesh’s banking system.
Despite the decline in full-year inflows, Bangladesh received $38.05 million in remittances from the Maldives during the first three months of the current fiscal year.
BB sees local branches of Bangladeshi banks as one way to give workers more direct access to banking services, while the proposed currency arrangements could reduce reliance on informal foreign-exchange markets.
