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| Sunday, 17 February 2002 |
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NRFC accounts: BoC notches up 25 years by JAYAMPATHY JAYASINGHE The Bank of Ceylon (BoC), a pioneer of Non-Residential Foreign Currency (NRFC) schemes in Sri Lanka, celebrated the silver jubilee of its NRFC operations on February 14. Bank of Ceylon, General Manager, Sarath de Silva said at a media briefing that the inflow of foreign exchange from expatriate workers in the Middle East was quite high. He said of the local banks, the BoC accounts for 37 per cent of the total NRFC deposits and 67 per cent of the total inward remittances. For the first time in Sri Lanka, euro NRFC accounts will be opened by BoC and an awareness campaign will be conducted to familiarise Lankans with euro notes and coins. Meanwhile, to coincide with its silver jubilee celebrations and the '100 Day Programme' announced by the government, the BoC launched an improved version of a loan scheme helping Sri Lankan migrant workers. This scheme helps them to construct houses or purchase land. The other benefits of the NRFC scheme are to meet the airfare, registration fee of the Sri Lankan Bureau of Foreign Employment, incidental and medical expenses, initial three months family expenses and an insurance premium for a Sri Lanka Export Credit Insurance Corporation guarantee loan. General Manager, Sarath de Silva said that migrant workers cannot remit money to their families within the first three months as they owe money to their local agent and the BoC has stepped in to help the families during this period. He said the BoC has deployed 10 of its officials in the Middle Eastern countries to help Sri Lankan migrant workers to utilise their resources in a better way. The Bank's Senior Deputy General Manager, Guy de Silva said that of the country's total inward remittances of Rs. 87 billion, around Rs. 58 billion was channelled through BoC, a 67 per cent share of the remittances. He said migrant workers who have returned to Sri Lanka after completing their jobs can draw a loan up to Rs. 500,000 and those still in foreign employment can draw between one and eight million rupees. The NRFC is a savings scheme offered to Sri Lankans employed abroad to give them the highest return on their savings. NRFC accounts are available as savings accounts and fixed deposits. They can be opened in the following foreign currencies: euro, US dollars, sterling pounds, Swiss franks, German marks, Australian dollars, Japanese yen, French franks, Singapore dollars and Canadian dollars. |
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