On his recent visit to the Kingdom, the executive president of a leading Pakistani bank urged Pakistani expatriates to send their money through legal banking channels in order to increase the economic growth of their country. Khalid Bin Shaheen, head of the Global Remitters and Executive President of Habib Bank, said Pakistan was facing deep financial crisis. “We have to send money home through the proper banking channels avoiding money-laundering schemes. They are obviously the wrong channels,” he said. The expatriate community here would do their country proud by “not sending” any money through dubious means, he said dwelling upon the security hazards in sending money through the ‘hundi-hawala' system. “Banking channels are the safest,” he said. He said recently the Habib Bank has signed contracts with Bank Al-Rajhi and Bank Al-Bilad. As a result, Pakistanis will get good rates for currency conversion when they send money home. In addition, Shaheen said that no surcharges will be taken from the senders. There are around 90 branches of Tahweel Al-Rajhi in the Kingdom that are working in collaboration with Habib Bank to help Pakistanis repatriate their money. __
