Some of the banks which have opened several hundreds of new accounts as part of the Wage Protection System (WPS) introduced in the country last month have been struggling to meet the extra work load, it is learnt.
The government has introduced WPS to ensure timely payment of salaries to expatriate workers.
Owing to the developments which are apparently beyond their control, some banks have not been able to credit salaries to the accounts of new WPS-linked customers even a week after their employers had remitted money on time, sources said.
A bank staffer said they have several hundreds of new WPS-linked accounts and it is a laborious task to handle each of them. However, he hoped the situation would improve as the bank has accelerated the pace of the work.
It is understood that most of the companies which joined the WPS have preferred a couple of banks, which they felt offered better services than others. Interestingly these two banks are now finding it difficult to handle the new accounts as their numbers swell each day.
Though one or two other banks have also opened new accounts, there is said to be a considerable delay in processing the transactions there as well.
Inquiries also found that some of the banks are not keen to add poorly paid workers as new customers.
Reacting to the developments, the operations manager of a contracting firm which employs more than 1,300 workers, said two banks that they approached to open WPS-linked accounts did not show any interest.
An employer said it is desirable that ministries concerned instructed all banks to accept requests from companies for opening new salary accounts. “Sharing of the additional workload by all banks would help timely salary remittance. The delay at the banks where we operate our new WPS-linked accounts is because they have too many new such accounts to handle,” he said.
According to him, if the situation is not effectively addressed employers could be penalised for no fault of theirs for delay in salary payments.
