PayPal Arrives in Bangladesh

Bangladeshi freelancers have been facing difficulty in receiving remittance earned through outsourcing. To solve this problem, State-owned Sonali Bank has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with PayPal, a global online payment system. PayPal offers individuals and businesses to transfer funds electronically. An individual first needs to open a PayPal account with a valid email address because it is an online service. 

The Ambitious PayPal user would also need a valid credit card or a bank account linked with PayPal to use its services. PayPal earns money by charging transaction fees mainly from business accounts, charging to a payment’s recipient. Although most transactions are free, merchants pay a fee for each transaction. The fee is usually thirty cents plus a 1.9% to 2.9% surcharge fee, depending on the special surcharge formula they use. 

However, there are no fees to send money. Dider Md Abdur Rob, acting managing director of Sonali Bank said, “The MoU was signed with an aim to promote e-commerce in Bangladesh.” He added “We signed the MoU a month ago and sent it to PayPal. On Wednesday, a local representative of PayPal informed us that the US-based company has signed the deed.”

He further added, “Zunaid Ahmed Palak, state minister for ICT, held an emergency meeting with Sonali Bank over the progress of the MoU signing as Bangladesh had been trying to set a contract with PayPal for a long time.” “Bangladesh has been facing difficulty in receiving remittance earned through outsourcing but the new contract with PayPal will make the remittance inflow easier and faster.” 

Didar said. “We had a very effective meeting with the vice-president of PayPal today in San Jose, California. We explained to them in detail about Bangladesh Government’s policies and regulatory reforms and business opportunities for PayPal.” Zunaid Ahmed Palak said in a Facebook status on July 15 last year. He added, “PayPal has agreed to launch Xoom’s operations in Bangladesh Within this quarter. 

They [PayPal] will also internally discuss how they can prioritize and launch PayPal in Bangladesh and let us know if they need any further support from our government. We will continue our persuasion to bring PayPal to Bangladesh sooner than later.”

After the meeting with Palak, PayPal said that they would decide about their operation in Bangladesh after performing an internal evaluation and assessment of the business potential, sources in the ICT sector said. PayPal acquired Xoom to expand its business in emerging markets like China, India, and Mexico in July 2015.