CIMB Niaga enhances remittance service to migrant workers

Offers remittance, credit services to Indonesian workers as they sent $2.34bln to native country in 2009.

CIMB Niaga is expanding its remittance service in the company's Malaysian branch to tap into the growing amount of money repatriated by Indonesian migrant workers in the country.

Besides providing the remittance service, CIMB Niaga will also offer affordable credit to Indonesian residents working in the neighboring country, the bank's president director, Arwin Rasyid, said.

He said the bank will soon open a branch in the Malaysian capital and a number of supporting offices across the country to support remittance services for Indonesian migrant workers.

CIMB Niaga, created from the merger of Bank Niaga and Bank Lippo in 2008, is controlled by Malaysian financial conglomerate CIMB Group.

"As a new player, we are aiming to handle 10 percent of the money sent by around four million Indonesian workers in Malaysia. It's a realistic target we can reach this year," he told The Jakarta Post prior to the inauguration of Rumah Kita (Our House), a shelter for abused workers.

According to data from Bank Indonesia, migrant workers in Malaysia sent a total of US$2.34 billion to Indonesia in 2009 through banks and non-banking institutions.

View the full story in the Jakarta Post.