Saturday 26 June 2010

MoneyGram makes transfer deal with Abu Dhabi bank

MoneyGram International Inc. said Thursday it has signed a deal with National Bank of Abu Dhabi for international money transfer services via mobile phones.

The deal makes the money transfer capability available to the bank's customers throughout the United Arab Emirates.

Financial details of the deal were not disclosed.

The World Bank has recently estimated remittances from the UAE to be between $15 billion and $20 billion in 2009 with potential to continue growing in the coming years. In addition, the UAE has one of the highest mobile phone penetration rates in the world, MoneyGram said.

Shares of MoneyGram rose 3 cents to close at $2.62.

Sending that Cash Home

Immigration has always been a controversial issue and no more so than in the twenty-first century, when the opportunities to cross the world in search of improved economic conditions have significantly increased. Yet beyond providing a source of cheap labour and fodder for right-wing tabloids, what effects do the movements of these people actually have? We often hear speak about their impact on the countries that host them, but what about those on their countries of origin? Read more

Kenyan remittances up 4 pct yr/yr to $51.2 mln in May

NAIROBI (Reuters) - Kenyan remittances rose 4 percent to $51.172 million in May compared with the same month last year, central bank said on Friday.

Total remittances in the first five months of this year stood at $247.7 million compared with $236.5 million in the same period in 2009.

"Remittance transfers were $51.2 million in May 2010 compared with $52.7 million in April 2010. However, remittances in May continued to be above the trend average of $50 million per month," central bank said.

Money sent home by Kenyans abroad is a major source of foreign exchange behind agricultural exports and tourism. Source

Saturday 19 June 2010

Predicting the Future of Remittances to Vietnam

Money streaming into Vietnam has a huge impact on whoever it is receiving the money. Whether it be a low-income family in the Southern Delta to big-name banks in Saigon, remittance offers a big boost to the country’s economy.

Approximately 11.2% of Vietnam’s GDP (gross domestic product) comes from remittance. Though this may appear to be a low figure, it is huge compared to Mexico which is the highest recipient for money transferred in, yet just 4% of the country’s GDP is due to remittance.

Since restrictions on remittance to Vietnam are so few and far-between, many foreigners began investing in savings or businesses in the area, which in turn sparked the economy. In major cities you will find new buildings and businesses those investors have begun pouring their money into with the help of unlimited tax-free transfers. Read more

INDIA: Telcos can’t offer mobile banking

Hyderabad, June 18: Here is a piece of bad news for mobile operators, who want to tap the huge market for mobile ba-nking: The Reserve Bank of India does not want to delink banks from the mobile banking and wants mobile service providers to tie up with banks for offering banking services on mobile phones.

Mobile operators have be-en eager to offer banking as a value added service and wanted RBI to allow small ticket transactions such as payments below Rs 500 through mobile phones. Such measures mobile operators argue would made financial inclusion easier.
However, RBI thinks mobile operator-led financial inclusion is a just remittance system.“We want our financial inclusion to be more than just a remittance facility. We want our customers to get minumum services like deposit insurance, access to affordable credit and payment system, which only banks can offer,” RBI governor, Dr D. Subbarao, said.

Apart from this, he said a bank led model is decidedly safer and more sustainable in the backdrop of the concerns about money laundering and financing of terrorism. “We do recoginise the mobile telephony has an important role are keen that service providers collaborate with banks to provide services,” he said. Source

$328 Billion Piggy Bank

Global remittances keep families and some nations afloat.
By:
Meghna Pant

Remember the time you sent $100 to your favorite niece in Germany, or $800 to your sick mother in India, or the $1,500 to your son for his exchange program in Paris? The money you sent is part of the mega business of remittances, which in 2008 totaled $328 billion worldwide. The bulk of these remittances are transferred by foreign workers to family members for household expenses in their home countries. Remittances are the second largest financial inflow to many developing nations after trade and are bigger than even international aid or total foreign direct investment in India. For countries like Tajikstan, Tonga and Moldova, remittances constitute between a third to a half of their gross domestic product. They help fuel social and economic growth in many countries. Most often expatriates use money transfer organizations (MTOs), such as Western Union or MoneyGram, to send much-needed money to struggling family members back home. Read More

Tuesday 15 June 2010

Cost of electronic banking set to reduce in Uganda

Kampala

The cost of mobile phone banking and the internet (e-banking) is set to drop after Bank of Africa, unveiled a low-cost electronic banking services in the market. The bank has raised stakes for other banks offering mobile and internet banking by lowering the fees paid by individuals to execute transactions on their accounts via mobile phone Short Message Services (SMS). Read more

BPR to Roll-Out Mobile Banking in Rwanda

Banque Populaire Du Rwanda (bpr), the Largest Bank By Branch Network in the Country, is Set to Roll out Mobile Banking by the end of August.

The new product will enable the bank’s clients to access banking and financial services using a mobile phone.

BPR’s CEO, Ben Kalkman, said that the ongoing pilot phase is showing positive results.

“The service will enable BPR’s clients to transfer, send and receive money from different places around the country in partnership with MTN Rwanda,” Kalkman said.

Mobile Banking has been successful in many parts of the world where there is minimal infrastructure development such as remote and rural areas. Read more

Research: Migration, remittances and assets in Bangladesh: Considerations about their intersection and development policy recommendations

This report presents an analysis of the results of a survey conducted on more than 10,000 households in Bangladesh.2 The study shows relevant information that can enhance the conditions of people who migrate and search for greater opportunities to achieve development. Read more

Research: Remittances and development: financial literacy in an international perspective

Introduction
This paper presents an analysis and the results of fieldwork in the area of financial education as a tool to convert remittance clients into bank clients. The paper analyses the financial characteristics of remittance recipient clients who receive financial counseling and the extent to which they modify some of their attitudes and practices on budgeting and saving in particular. The analysis is based on data
collected on the evaluation of over 35,000 clients receiving financial advising in four countries, and who withdraw their remittances from twelve financial institutions.

Read more

300,000 workers to benefit from new mobile offering in UAE

Dubai – June 14th, 2010 - Leading UAE payroll processor Workers Equity Holding (WEH) and mobile solutions provider Luup today joined forces to bring a comprehensive mobile money transfer (remittance) solution to the market. The agreement opens way for WEH’s customers to seamlessly remit money home from their mobiles, in partnership with financial institutions.

Remittances out of the UAE alone will grow 10 to 12 percent this year driven by the vast

population of migrant workers. “Workers Equity plays a crucial role in offering payroll cards and electronic salary disbursement services under the umbrella of the UAE Central Bank Wage Protection System (WPS). The agreement with Luup, intended to mobile enable international remittances directly from payroll cards, offers a lifeline to thousands of families,” said Ibrahim Darraz, General Manager, WEH.
Read more

Migration: development on the move

Migration is an unstoppable fact of life in the 21st century and should be based on a sound understanding of migrants’ motivations and real life experiences.

Between 2006 and 2010, the Institute for Public Policy Research and the Global Development Network conducted a major research project on the development impacts of migration. Working in collaboration with local research partners in seven countries – Colombia, Fiji, Georgia, Ghana, Jamaica, Macedonia and Vietnam, the project collected comparable primary data on households with absent and returned migrants from across the world through an in-depth literature review, interviews with key stakeholders and, most importantly, using a new nationally-representative household survey. In total, around 10,000 households were asked about their day-to-day experiences of migration and its material impact on their lives, building a more detailed picture of migration in developing countries than ever compiled before. Read more

UGANDA: WB reports more declining remittances

The World Bank has cautioned developing countries that they risk facing continued financing gaps due to the slow recovery in foreign remittances. The bank said in its Global Economic Prospects 2010 (GEP), released on Thursday that remittances to developing countries is forecasted to recover modestly from $454 billion in2009 to $771 billion by 2012, which still stands below the 2007 $1.2 trillion.

Declining remittances
“Overall, remittances to developing countries is projected to stand at $210 billion in 2010, declining to $180 billion in 2011—down from an estimated $352 billion in 2009,” the GEP reads in part.

The GEP also says over the next 20 years, the fight against poverty could slow down because governments will be forced to cut productive and human capital investments due to lower development aid and reduced tax revenues. “If bilateral aid declines as it has in the past, this will affect long-term growth in developing countries—potentially increasing the number of the poor by as much as 26 million in 2020,” the prospectus says.

Europe’s debt crisis
The bank further stressed in the GEP, that global economic recovery continues to advance, but Europe’s debt crisis has created new hurdles on the road to sustainable medium term growth.

According to the report, while the impact of the European debt crisis has so far been contained, prolonged rising sovereign debt could make credit more expensive and curtail investment in developing countries. “Demand stimulus in high-income countries is increasingly part of the problem instead of the solution,” said Mr Hans Timmer, director of the Prospects Group at the World Bank. Source

PHILIPPINES: More households invest remittances

Families of overseas workers are less cautious now, with a higher percentage saying they would invest a portion of the remittances they receive, a survey conducted by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) showed.

BSP’s Consumer Expectations Survey for the second quarter showed that households using remittances for investment increased to 7.2 percent, from 5.8 percent in previous quarter’s survey.

The percentage of households that allocated portions of their remittances to savings went down to 38 percent from 50.4 percent.

Much of the remittances are still used for everyday expenses like food, education and medical expenses.

Majority (96.3 percent) of the households used remittances in Q2 2010 for food, while over sixty percent of the households (64.2 percent) used their remittances for education expenses. Read more

Sunday 13 June 2010

Azerbaijan bans remittances through MIGOM money transfer system

The Central Bank of Azerbaijan (CBA) instructed the commercial banks operating in the country to stop business relations with the MIGOM money transfer system, the Azerbaijani banks said.

Based on the notification, the banks operating in Azerbaijan must not engage in any transactions under this system of remittances from June 8.

The reason for the suspension of cooperation with the MIGOM money transfer system is linked with its illegal remittances to Nagorno-Karabakh, occupied by Armenia, the banks reported.

Earlier MIGOM was warned to stop illegal remittances, after which the system suspended transfers to Karabakh. But as the CBA's current decision shows, it again resumed its activities in the occupied territories. Read more

Pakistan receives record remittances of over $8 billion in 11 months

KARACHI: Overseas Pakistanis sent home more than eight billion dollars during the 11 months of the current fiscal year, setting a new-record in the country’s history, the central bank said on Thursday.

“This is the first time that remittances exceeded the mark of eight billion dollars in any fiscal year,” the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) said in a statement. The remittances for the month of June are yet to be accounted for, it added.

The bank said $8.064 billion were received during the first 11 months of the current fiscal 2009/10, showing an increase of $988.21 million, or 14 per cent, over the corresponding period last year, it said.

The central bank attributed the record-breaking performance to the joint initiative of Pakistan Remittance Initiative (PRI) undertaken by the SBP and the finance and overseas Pakistanis ministries with a view to facilitate the flow of funds from abroad. Read more

France: Migrants' Remittances Are a Cash Cow

Immigrants in France send some eight billion euro (9.6 billion US dollars) a year back to their countries of origin, often paying exorbitant fees - though the French government has announced moves to lower tariffs.

Noting that remittances by migrants totaled more than the national development aid budget, French immigration minister Eric Besson endorsed an agreement Wednesday between money-transfer company MoneyGram International and local French firms.

The agreement aims to expand fund-transfer services to tobacco shops, the largest network of sales points in France that already sell such products as top-up cards for mobile phones and tickets for the bus and metro. Read more

Wednesday 2 June 2010

PHILIPPINES: JPEPA boosts remittances, FDIs

The implementation of the Japan-Philippines economic partnership agreement (JPEPA) not only gave a boost to Philippine exports to that country but to investments and remittances from Japan as well.

In a report on the outcome of the second sub-committee meeting on the improvement of the business environment last May 24, the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) noted that foreign direct investments from Japan to the Philippines increased in 2009, and thus the Japanese share of FDI to the Philippines in that year reached 58 percent.

Remittances from Japan to the Philippines also increased from $575.2 million in 2008 to $773.6 million last year. This was a 34.5 percent increase and pushed Japan’s ranking as a source of OFW remittances to the Philippines to number 5 from number 7. Read more

NEPAL: Remittance economy of Nepal Responding to the global recession

R emittances broadly refer to transfers, in cash or in kind, from a migrant to household residents in the country of origin. While other capital flows tend to augment during favorable economic cycles and decline in periods of economic downturn, remittances react less violently and reveal amazing stability over time.
Remittances are often of significance following conflict since they normally increase in times of crisis and directly contribute to household income. The stability of remittances emanates from the fact that senders are unlikely to be affected by the same shocks as recipients.

For Nepal, remittances, until recently, had been providing an important safety net for the economy both in terms of bringing stability to the external sector and helping to stabilize consumption levels of a significant number of households in the country. At the household level, remittances had helped to reduce poverty, improve standard of living and attain higher educational levels. Moreover, these inflows had been instrumental in maintaining the current account surplus despite a widening trade deficit. This subsequently had enabled Nepal to maintain a growing level of foreign exchange reserves. Read more

ALBANIA: Hard times in Greece prompt Albanians to return home

Albania (Reuters) - After the fall of Communism two decades ago, Greece became a promised land for hundreds of thousands of Albanians, a place to make a new start after generations of grinding poverty.

World

But the gold rush has waned and many migrants are now finding themselves to be the first victims of the Greek financial crisis. Some see better economic prospects in Albania and are tempted to return home for good.

"I have never seen the economy so bad," said Agim Aliaj, a 48-year-old house painter who returned to Albania in March, after failing to find regular work in Greece for months.

"It has been impossible for me to send money home for a year and a half. Their problems will affect us, too, very hard."

Albanians are by far the largest groups of foreign workers in Greece, estimated at 650,000 to 800,000, and have been among the first to feel the current turmoil. Read more

Remittances to Mexico increase slightly for first time since '08

By Andres R. Martinez

June 1 (Bloomberg) -- Mexico’s peso bonds rose, pushing yields to the lowest level in almost three years, as rising remittances signaled the economic recovery is accelerating.

The yield on Mexico’s 10 percent peso bond due in 2024 fell five basis points, or 0.05 percentage point, to 7.54 percent at 5 p.m. New York time, according to Banco Santander SA, the lowest level since June 5, 2007. The price of the security rose 0.54 centavo to 121.63 centavos per peso.

“The downside risks are relatively lower than other global emerging markets,” said Aryam Vazquez, an emerging-markets economist at Wells Fargo & Co. in New York. “It’s a testament to the improved risk profile. Mexico’s economy is recovering better than what many expected.”

The currency dropped 0.3 percent to 12.9700 per dollar, from 12.9346 yesterday. The drop pared the peso’s gain this year to 0.9 percent against the dollar. Read more

Mexico’s Peso Bond Yields Fall to Lowest Since 2007 on Economy

By Andres R. Martinez

June 1 (Bloomberg) -- Mexico’s peso bonds rose, pushing yields to the lowest level in almost three years, as rising remittances signaled the economic recovery is accelerating.

The yield on Mexico’s 10 percent peso bond due in 2024 fell five basis points, or 0.05 percentage point, to 7.54 percent at 5 p.m. New York time, according to Banco Santander SA, the lowest level since June 5, 2007. The price of the security rose 0.54 centavo to 121.63 centavos per peso.

“The downside risks are relatively lower than other global emerging markets,” said Aryam Vazquez, an emerging-markets economist at Wells Fargo & Co. in New York. “It’s a testament to the improved risk profile. Mexico’s economy is recovering better than what many expected.”

The currency dropped 0.3 percent to 12.9700 per dollar, from 12.9346 yesterday. The drop pared the peso’s gain this year to 0.9 percent against the dollar. Read more