The government yesterday approved a proposal from Sonali Bank in this connection. The bank that already has a similar bank in the United Kingdom will shortly start the process of getting approval for the bank in the US.

Sonali Bank high officials believe that it will be a profitable venture like the Sonali Bank UK Ltd, which was opened two years ago.

The bank will provide full array of banking packages including loans to expatriate Bangladeshis. In addition, it will focus on financing export and import activities.

Sonali Bank initiated this move in November when the US-based Sonali Exchange Company faced a major blow as two American banks asked the company to close their remittance accounts with them due to a tighter US monetary regulation.

Sonali Exchange Company remits to Bangladesh about $200 million annually.

The JPM Chase Bank and Wachovia Bank --which constitute 80 percent of the Sonali Exchange's operations --have decided to shut down the accounts from March 31 next and within 30 business days respectively, officials said.

Sonali Exchange in a letter to the Sonali Bank head office in Dhaka in early November said, "the overall situation in the US financial sector has been remaining vulnerable all the times after the events of September 11, 2001 and enactment of USA Patriot Act."

Sonali Exchange, licensed in the USA and shown as a subsidiary of Sonali Bank, remits expatriates' money through remittance accounts held in six American banks which also include Habib American Bank, Wilshire Bank, Bank of America and National City Bank.

Following this development, Sonali Bank started working on the idea of opening a full-fledged bank in the US and sent a proposal to the finance ministry.