BOP introduces priority banking for overseas Pakistanis

• BOP links priority banking with RDA to facilitate NRPs
• Industry leaders, bankers and executives said at a seminar that RDA is a big success as it receives on average $250 million to $300 million investments every month from overseas Pakistanis

Dubai :  Roshan Digital Account (RDA) looks set to achieve a $3 billion milestone this month as non-resident Pakistanis continued to repose trust in the scheme by investing in different RDA products, according  to experts.

Industry leaders, bankers and executives said at a seminar that RDA is a big success as it receives on average $250 million to $300 million investments every month from overseas Pakistanis.

The Bank of Punjab (BOP) hosted the seminar at the Pakistan Pavilion of Expo 2020 to create awareness about RDA among the Pakistani community. The seminar was part of a series of events and conferences being arranged by BOP at Expo 2020 Dubai in November. 

Pakistani Ambassador to the UAE, State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) officials, BOP executives and partners participated in the seminar and briefed a large audience of Pakistani expats in the pavilion about the benefits of digital banking through RDA. A good number of Pakistanis also watched the event on Facebook Live.

RDA a huge success

Saleem Ullah, executive director for financial resource management at SBP, gave a comprehensive presentation on RDA and highlighted salient features and benefits of the scheme.

"RDA is a huge success as more than 285,000 RDA accounts have been opened so far from across 175 countries since the scheme was launched in September 2020. Pakistanis community abroad can benefits from number of RDA products such as Roshan Apna Ghar, Roshan Apni Car and Naya Pakistan Certificates, among others," Saleem Ullah said.

He said around 1,000 to 1,200 RDAs are being opened daily on average and the scheme is expected to gain pace in coming months as banks, embassies and the government are creating good awareness among the overseas Pakistanis.

"Only five per cent of nine million non-resident Pakistanis worldwide have opened their digital accounts in past 14 months. There is a huge scope to tap the remaining 95 per cent of Pakistani diaspora by creating awareness through seminars, webinars and online campaigns," he said.

RDA designed for NRPs

Chief guest Pakistan Ambassador to the UAE Afzal Mahmood said RDA is an innovative product and is specially designed to cater to the needs of non-resident Pakistanis.

"Overseas Pakistanis especially in the Gulf region gave an overwhelming response to RDA by investing in Naya Pakistan Certificates, Roshan Apna Ghar and Roshan Apni Car schemes. About 1.6 million overseas Pakistanis are residing in the UAE and they have remitted record money through RDA to Pakistan," he said.

The Ambassador appreciated BOP for hosting a series of seminars and webinars at Pakistan Pavilion and said it will help Pakistani community to understand the benefits and advantages of RDA scheme.

"BOP introduced exciting additional products and features for its customers that are really helpful for overseas Pakistanis," the ambassador said.

BOP's priority banking

Zahid Mustafa, group chief, consumer and digital banking group at BOP, highlighted the bank's efforts to promote RDA scheme by introducing priority digital banking to facilitate the Pakistani community.

"Our services under RDA scheme are free of charge as we value the contributions of overseas Pakistanis to their country. We have linked our priority banking proposition, BOP Khaas, to RDA scheme that will give overseas Pakistani community access to host of services such as personal relationship manager, priority banking, one free bank account service to a friend or family," he said.

Nofel Daud, group head of retail banking at BOP, said the bank is committed to offer NRPs best services under RDA scheme.

Daud, who moderated the seminar, said overseas Pakistanis gave overwhelming response to Roshan Apna Ghar and Roshan Apni Car.

Atyab Tahir, country head of Mastercard in Pakistan, BOP is a key partner for Mastercard and both are finalising details of new credit card that will offer good facilities to cardholders.

"We are going to offer more privileges to BOP customers under RDA scheme. The new cardholders will get access to all international lounges in addition to some other benefits," Tahir said.

Yasir Shirazi, founder and CEO of InstaKin, also addressed the webinar and briefed the audience about key features of their company's products and how it would benefit the RDA subscribers.

The session concluded with a question and answer session in which questions from the audience were answered by the webinar panelists.

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© Press Release 2021