LBP-Smart cash card offers faster alternative for OFWs

Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) will soon enjoy the benefits of a faster and more efficient mode of sending money back home with the Landbank Cash Card for OFWs, Landbank’s newest remittance and financial product developed in partnership with Smart Communications Inc. (Smart). The Landbank Cash Card for OFWs was unveiled during “Biyaheng Pinoy: Isang Pagpupugay", a tribute to OFWs held in celebration of Migrant Workers Day. In attendance were top government officials led by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, Labor Secretary Arturo Brion, Finance Secretary Margarito “Gary" Teves, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Governor Amando Tetangco, Jr. and Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (Owwa) Administrator Marianito Roque as well as the heads of multi-lateral and bilateral agencies, and members of the media. Some 150 representatives of OFW families also attended the event. The Landbank Cash Card for OFWs is designed to provide a faster and more efficient remittance system, as well as more accessible financial services for the convenience of OFWs and their families by utilizing the Smart Financial Services Hub, Smarts mobile commerce platform. “Through this service, Landbank is encouraging the use of mobile phone-based banking services among our OFWs for their added convenience even as we continue to help promote formal financial institutions as main channels for OFW remittances," said Landbank president Gilda Pico. “We are proud to mark yet another milestone for the Smart Financial Services Hub. It is our pleasure to provide the country’s premier financial institution with our tried and tested, and highly successful mobile commerce solutions. We are optimistic that our partnership with Landbank will enable the bank to reach out to the unbanked and underbanked in the countryside, and around the world," said Smart president Napoleon Nazareno. The convenience and speed of the service was demonstrated with an actual fund transfer streamed live from Bahrain. During the transaction witnessed by Philippine Ambassador to Bahrain Eduardo Pablo Maglaya, a Filipino worker in Bahrain used her cell phone to send funds to a relative who attended the Migrant Workers' Day celebration. The relative then withdrew the remittance at an ATM set up at the venue. The ATM withdrawal also highlighted how relatives of OFWs who are cash card holders can withdraw money remitted to them from any of Landbank’s more than 700 ATMs, and over 7,000 affiliate ATMs of Expressnet, Bancnet and Megalink nationwide. The Landbank Cash Card for OFWs will not only enable cashless purchases in participating establishments, but will also serve as an ID card and a welfare card for the OFW, allowing deductions representing the OFWs monthly contributions to the Social Security System, Philhealth and PAG-Ibig. The leader in wireless innovations, Smart has been in the forefront in promoting mobile commerce services in the Philippines like its award-winning Smart Money, the worlds first electronic wallet card linked to a mobile phone. In 2005, SMART also launched the world’s first mobile phone-based remittance service called Smart Padala for Filipino migrant workers.