Bangladeshis abroad have sent US$503.78 million remittances during the first 12 days of the current August.

In first five days, the country received $192.45 million, but the inflow of remittance increased between 6 and 12 August, reaching $311.33, according to the latest data of Bangladesh Bank, reports BSS.

The data also shows that the expatriate Bangladeshis have used more private banking channels for sending remittances during the period $334.09 million.

Four state-owned commercial banks — Agrani, Janata, Rupali and Sonali — received $159.99 million while four state-owned specialised banks $4.19 million, the data added.

But, the expatriate Bangladeshis have sent only $5.51 million through foreign commercial banks.

Among the private commercial banks, Islami Bank Bangladesh Limited (IBBL) received the highest amount of remittance of $125.81 million while Dutch-Bangla Bank $21.71 million.

The other top five private banks are National Bank Limited ($20.24m), Pubali Bank ($18.06m), Uttara ($17.94m), Bank Asia ($13.6m) and Mercantile Bank ($12.18m).

Of the state-owned banks, Agrani Bank received $61.41 million, Janata Bank $42.47 million, Rupali Bank $8.06 million and Sonali Bank $48.06 million.