Int’l Transactions Reporting System underway to monitor remittances

Sri Lanka will soon see the establishment of a comprehensive cross border and foreign currency transaction monitoring system with the Central Bank (CB) implementing an International Transactions Reporting System (ITRS).

The system, which will be executed through licensed banks, is in the process of being implemented after significant data gaps in monitoring of remittance flows and movements of migrants were found during the pandemic.

“This will help improve BOP statistics including but not limited to a wide range of data on workers’ remittances while also supporting to reconcile any statistical discrepancies,” the CB said.

It added that the ITRS will provide disaggregated workers’ remittances data based on the country of origin, currency, remittance receiving districts, demographics of remitters and recipient banks.

According to CBSL, the capturing of such data will enable to better estimate the distribution of remittances and identify emerging trends that would be of use in devising policies to enhance remittances.