"We have so far installed online system in 300 Brac outlets, out of 1,400 across the country, for offering remittance services to rural areas. We will also bring another 150 outlets under the network by the end of this year," M Ehsanul Haque, managing director of the Brac Bank, told a press briefing Wednesday in Dhaka.

Brac Bank has already extended the services of Western Union through its network at the village level so that people can get their money without visiting the banks operating in cities, he told the briefing, organised to mark live money transfer from UK, the first of its kind in Bangladesh.

Habibul Bashar, captain of Bangladesh cricket team, and Mohammad Ashraful, a cricket star, transferred money Wednesday via videoconference to their brother and father in Dhaka from Southall, UK.

Service charge of Western Union is very competitive now, he said adding that in 90 percent of the cases, people can get the money within 10 to 15 minutes. Whereas in case of some other service providers, it takes two to three days to get the money.

"Providing remittance service is a major business of Brac Bank. Our business growth in remittance is as high as 295 percent on month-to-month basis and average growth was over 100 percent in the last five months," Haque pointed out.

Presently, around four million dollars is coming through Brac Bank every month, he added. "We have started our business just one and a half years back. We hope to be a major player in remittance business within a couple of years."

The MD said Brac Bank hopes to grab a major portion of remittance business of the nationalised commercial banks (NCBs) in a couple of years using its strong network and identifying the weaknesses of the NCBs.

Remittance inflow will see a major boost in the coming years as global migration is a big issue now, he said and the bank is also planning to launch a campaign against hundi, an illegal system of sending money.

Naushad Hussain, head of Transaction Sales & Secure Remittance Service, and other officials of Brac Bank were also present at the press conference.

Speaking at the briefing, Naushad said Western Union, operating in around 200 countries across the world, has the largest network in Bangladesh through Brac Bank.

Someone can receive the money through Western Union within minutes, he said adding that an individual does not need a credit card or bank account to send money through Western Union.

A person can get the money no matter where he lives -- in rural area or in the city. If an individual gets the money transfer number from the sender abroad over phone, he or she can receive the money from Brac outlet in rural area, Naushad mentioned.

He said the Western Union is authorised by Bangladesh Bank. In addition to Brac Bank, Western Union's other agents in Bangladesh are National Bank and Arab Bangladesh Bank.

"Bangladesh has a remittance market of US$ 7 billion per year. Our objective is to provide fast, reliable and convenient money transfer services for Bangladeshis all over the world," said Anil Kapur, regional vice president (South Asia) of Western Union Financial Services Inc, in a statement.