Awards for Excellence 2020
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When the Covid-19 pandemic reached Qatar and foreign exchange houses were forced to close, a customer contacted Commercial Bank of Qatar (CB) with concerns that his domestic workers were no longer able to send critical remittance payments to families in their home countries.
Given Qatar’s large population of foreign workers, Commercial Bank recognized that this issue was much bigger than just one household. The bank’s innovators immediately went to work to develop a contactless digital solution and, within 72 hours, the CB Household Worker PayCard was launched.
Commercial Bank’s rapid and innovative response to this pressing issue deserves recognition as excellence in leadership.
Remittances from the Gulf are a key source of foreign exchange for many countries, as well as a vital source of funds for many individuals.
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Joseph Abraham |
The World Bank predicts that global remittances will decline by about 20% in 2020 due to the pandemic.
International remittances totalled $714 billion in 2019, according to research by Tellimer, which calculates that an additional $500 million was sent via informal channels. The cost of international remittances can be as high as 6.8%, with banks typically the highest cost channel.
Remittances from Qatar totalled $11.6 billion or 6% of GDP in 2019.
An individual can apply for CB Household Worker PayCard on CB’s mobile banking app and then create a PayCard account for household, farm or other personal staff to credit their monthly salaries. Remittances can also be set up on their behalf to overseas beneficiaries using CB’s digital 60-second solution.
Led by chief executive Joseph Abraham, Commercial Bank also took quick action to protect its staff and became the first bank to offer a six-month postponement of small and medium-sized enterprise loan instalments and credit dues at no extra cost.
It also introduced a Covid-19 national response guarantee programme with the Qatar Development Bank to provide loans to affected private-sector companies.
