Filipino Ex-Pat Workers to Use Mobile Phones to Send Money Home

Philippines based bank, Metrobank has inked a deal with mobile payments vendor, Luup to enable overseas workers to send funds to their families back home. Transactions will be initiated by customers of Luup banks, processed through Luup and paid out, utilizing Metrobank's network of over 500 branches and over 1,100 ATMS across the country.

It is estimated that there are around two million Filipinos working in the Middle-East alone.

According to the Central Bank of the Philippines OFWs remittances from the Middle East amounted to upwards of US$2.5 billion in 2008. "This is an increase of 13.68 percent over 2007 numbers," said Richard S. So, Senior Vice President, Metrobank.

"Filipinos are savvy mobile users, and in general have adopted mobile payment technologies ahead of other markets, in order to make person-to-person payments and mobile top up transactions. With our new partnership with Luup, OFWs can now have a hassle-free and secure way of sending their remittances," he continued.

Metrobank has a consolidated network of over 500 domestic branches and 35 foreign branches, subsidiaries, and representative offices; 58 remittance tie-ups, and more than a thousand correspondent banks, with an international presence spanning 21 countries.

"With a mobile phone penetration rate of more than 75 percent last year - comprising close to 70 million mobile phone users in the Philippines that are adept with mobile phone payment applications, the Philippine expatriate market is ripe for international remittance services," said Morten Hofstad, Head of Business Development for Luup in the MENA region. "The convenience and security afforded by our solutions enable OFWs throughout the Middle East to send their regular remittances in a fast and secure way. Likewise, this new service is expedient especially where crisis or emergency situations are concerned."

Luup launched its services in the Middle East through a partnership with the National Bank of Abu Dhabi (NBAD) last year as well as with Deutsche Bank globally. Luup is currently in talks with other financial institutions to build similar partnerships aimed at facilitating mobile payments around the globe.

Got a dream but no cash? The Internet can help

Chris Waddell wants to climb Kilimanjaro in a wheelchair; George Del Barrio wants to make a film in Cambodia; Jeff Edwards wants to write a book about a science fiction writer: they want you to fund their dreams.

A website called Kickstarter.com is making it possible for people like this to raise sums ranging from a few hundred to tens of thousands of dollars to fund anything that captures the imagination of Internet users with a little money to spare.

It worked for Emily Richmond, a 24-year-old living in Los Angeles who plans to sail solo around the world for two years.

She has raised $8,142 from 148 people who will receive rewards such as Polaroid photos from the trip, an origami sailboat or a telephone call when she crosses the equator.

Landon Ray, who runs a marketing software firm called SendPepper.com, gave $500 after showing his 5-year-old daughter Richmond's video promising to keep donors updated by blog and send rewards such as a coconut mailed from a far-flung port.

"I thought this was a perfect learning experience for my daughter," Ray said, adding that he also dreamed of sailing the world himself, so it was partly about living vicariously.

Ray also plans to use his sponsorship as a marketing tool.

Many of the projects on the site are by filmmakers, musicians, artists and writers. Project creators set a time limit and a target. If they don't reach it, they get nothing.

Communities online and offline

Jason Bitner's pitch for $7,500 to pay for post-production of a documentary about the small Midwestern town of La Porte, Indiana, was so popular it raised $12,153.

The film is about an archive of portraits by a photographer who died in 1971. Bitner came across boxes of the pictures in the back room of a diner and has published a book. The film features interviews with the subjects 40 or 50 years later.

"This film is very much about community," Bitner said. "We decided early on we wanted to do community-based funding, sort of crowd-sourced things."

About a third of his 149 backers were friends and family. Others include residents of La Porte but also people from as far afield as Denmark and Australia.

Jonathan Scott Chinn, who is seeking $16,500 to make a short comedy-horror film called "Always a Bridesmaid," said the site was an efficient "creative marketplace."

"You're given the opportunity to make your pitch, and if it's really interesting, it will take off," Chinn said.

Independent singer-songwriter Brad Skistimas, 26, has been using the Internet for eight years to promote his one-man band Five Times August. He used Kickstarter to raise $20,000 to finance his new album "Life As A Song," due out October 13.

Donations amounted to pre-orders of the album, giving fans early access as well as additional material such as handwritten lyrics, photos and, for $1,000, dinner with the singer.

"It's a great way to get involved with fans," Skistimas said. "I was marketing to my own fans, so I said 'If you guys want more music from me, now's a great time to help me out.'"

Kickstarter co-founder Perry Chen said around $500,000 had been donated in the four months since it was launched, with more than 60 percent of projects achieving their goal. Until now the site has charged no fee, but from mid-September it will charge 5 percent of funds donated to successful projects.

Chen said so far there had been no scams that he knows of, though plenty of projects simply don't take off.

"The model works really well to prevent any type of misbehavior because the people who fund these projects; there's always a core group of the person's social network," he said. "Those are bridges people will work very hard not to burn."

ATM cards may soon be used to pay for MRT fares

Philippine banks may soon issue cash cards that can be used to pay for Metro Rail Transit (MRT) fares.

That is if talks between the Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC) and BancNet, an electronic banking consortium, push through, an executive said on Monday.

Under the proposed partnership, BancNet members will be allowed to issue cards that can also be used to pay for MRT fares.

In turn, RCBC is expected to earn from settlement fees to be collected from BancNet lenders since it has an exclusive five-year agreement with the MRT’s ticket provider, Omniprime Marketing Inc.

“Bancnet would like to tie-up with us since we have the franchise," RCBC executive vice president Ismael R. Sandig said during the launch of its MyWallet-MRT Card.

Besides being a regular card for automated teller machines (ATMs), MyWallet-MRT Card can also be used to pay for MRT fares, the first such card in the industry.

“All banks are trying to find ways to duplicate us," he added. “If they will invest on system, it is a huge amount. The market is so huge. There is no way you should stop other banks from issuing. They just have to share some fees with us."

Settlement fees for the proposed arrangement are expected to contribute more than 20 percent to RCBC’s fee-based income for the next two to three years, Sandig said.

The RCBC MRT MyWallet is a prepaid stored value card that allows cardholders draw cash over the counter or ATM, pay bills via RCBC, make balance inquiries, among others.

It is a new variant of the RCBC MyWallet cash card that can be bought through any RCBC branch for disbursement requirements. Unlike a regular ATM account, there is no maintaining balance required.

By December, the RCBC MRT MyWallet will be used in the 13 stations from North Avenue in Quezon City to Taft Avenue in Pasay City, RCBC first vice president Remo M. Garrovillo Jr. said

When it was launched last month, the card was only available in North Ave. and Taft stations.

By 2010, the MRT is looking at a unified cashless and cardless ticketing system and the bank is “positioning for that," he said.

RCBC will be also be tapping universities as reloading stations.

Sandig said the bank would share earnings with them. This is better than entertaining a lot of people in the branches just to reload.

Light Rail Transit Authority wants to see the success of the MyWallet-MRT Card before RCBC can come in.

The tie-up is expected to increase RCBC customers by two million, said Sandig, who is responsible for creating 10 retail banking products in Philippine National Bank.

“This is more of a breakthrough. Most Filipinos cannot afford to maintain P2,000 or P5,000. The only way you can tell them to use the bank is lower the price of doing business with them. There is a big business for my wallet card with our affiliates," he said.