Banks can now pay fees for correspondence courses abroad

Banks can now pay fees for correspondence courses abroad without prior approval from Bangladesh Bank.

A correspondence course is a class in which students receive lessons and assignments by mail or e-mail and then return completed assignments to receive a grade.

The central bank gave the go-ahead through a notice on Tuesday.

To facilitate the development of professional skills, it has been decided that banks may remit fees for correspondence courses to be paid by students to foreign professional or educational institutions for appearing in professional examinations, the notice read.

Previously, students had to seek approval from the Bangladesh Bank to remit fees for correspondence courses.

The remittances must be sent to the foreign institutions abroad, after deducting any applicable taxes, according to the notice.

"The facility shall be admissible for one correspondence course at a time. For each release of foreign exchange subsequent to the first, the current progress report needs to be taken into consideration," the notice read.

A senior official of the central bank said the new policy will help students remit money for professional courses such as the Chartered Financial Analyst and the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, etc.