Philippine Remittance Innovations and Related Systems.
Oliva (2008) reported that the rise of remittance services like Globe G-Cash and Smart Padala are setting examples for Asian countries that are looking at developing new mobile services for predominantly prepaid market of mobile phone users. Smart Communications developed the Smart Padala for cash remittance via text messaging. It is a faster and cheaper way of remitting cash from sender abroad to the celfone of a beneficiary in the Philippines.
Through the use of the mobile device, the OFW can send remittance by going to any Smart Padala remittance partners and fill-out information sheet. The remittance center will then transfer the remittance to the Smart Money number of the beneficiary and after a few seconds, the remittance center will confirm that the transaction has been completed.
The beneficiaries will then receive a text message indicating the sixteen digit Smart Money Number. Another text message will be sent to confirm that the money has been received through the Smart money number. To encash, the beneficiary can go to any Smart Padala center.
Gcash, Globe’s flagship m-commerce services, was born from transforming a mobile phone into a wallet. It was launch in October 2004 and effectively given its subscribers access to cashless and cardless method of facilitating money remittance.
In February 2005, Gcash was awarded the Best Mobile Messaging Service during the GSM Awards. It was also named the Most Innovative Mobile Operator Service and lauded as the Best M-Commerce Service Application.
Various Internet based remittance services are also available in the Philippines. Their service ranges from electronic fund transfers, investments and other financial products and services.
Internet-based remittance system gained reputation of being a technology driven and efficient way of sending money by OFWs. The use of the Internet integrates the process of online remittance utilizing proprietary mechanisms and facilities such as servers, debit cards, automated teller machines (ATM) and other mechanisms to facilitate money transfer.
Based from the study conducted by Business Planner, Philippines, about the remittance industry in the Philippines, above are the new remittance products in the remittance industry.
Seafarer’s Remittance Processing. For one thing, manning agency plays an important role in the remittance transaction of seafarers. Philippine Overseas Employment Agency (POEA) required that the manning agency should provide the seafarer with facilities to efficiently remit to their families the required portion of their monthly basic salary. On the other hand, the remittance process of land-based OFW is different because their salary can be remitted to their family on a variety of available remittance systems either via formal or traditional means. For sea-based OFW, POEA requires the manning to agency to pay the designated allottee of the seafarer in the Philippines subject to the currency control regulations at the port abroad and to the official rate of exchange prevailing at the time of payment.
Accordingly, remittance transactions of seafarers are being processed by their respective manning agency in the Philippines. This regular transaction requires special attention for the manning agencies because the seafarer’s families are depending on this remitted money to support their daily living expenses. Evidently, the role of available technology and IT enabled services are very crucial to efficiently handle these transactions.
References:
No comments:
Post a Comment