BSP opens Web site for overseas Filipinos

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has opened a web portal dedicated to the Overseas Filipino Workers’ (OFWs) to help them gain access to the banking services of major commercial banks catering to their needs. In a statement on Friday, BSP said the website is just one of its several initiatives in its continued efforts to improve the environment for OFW remittances. The portal, an interactive web facility hosted by the BSP, facilitates access to websites of major commercial banks providing remittance services to Filipinos staying in different parts of the world. It serves as a gateway to specific web pages of banks devoted to information on remittance services and products, charges/fees for remittance services to any part of the Philippines and location of their branches, remittance centers and foreign bank correspondents. The portal is expected to enhance the transparency of bank remittance services and products. This, in turn, will allow target users—the OFWs and their beneficiaries—to compare and choose the most competitively-priced and efficient remittance service provider. The portal is available at the BSP’s main webpage (www.bsp.gov.ph) and can be directly accessed at www.bsp.gov.ph/about/advocacies_ofw.asp. The BSP said the site was in recognition of the valuable contribution of the Overseas Filipino Workers (OFW) remittances to the economy. OFW remittances, which was recorded at a historic high of $12.8 billion in 2006, has been keeping the Philippine economy afloat. Another $1.2 billion was estimated to have been remitted through informal channels. The total amount is equivalent to 10.9% of the country's Gross Domestic Product, representing a huge resource that offers a lot of opportunities. Earlier, BSP Governor Armando Tetangco attributed the increase mainly to higher deployment of Filipino workers abroad, more and more in the skilled and professional categories, and a more aggressive campaign to encourage a greater number of overseas workers to channel their remittances through our banking system. To the banking sector in general and savings banks in particular, remittances averaging $1 billion a month from the estimated 11 million overseas Filipinos represent tremendous opportunities. Tetangco challenged the banking sector "to find innovative and more cost-efficient ways" to provide financial services as well as to expand their network and upgrade their infrastructure to reach an even greater number of our workers and their beneficiaries. Most of the workers’ remittances come from the United States, Saudi Arabia, Canada, Italy, the United Kingdom, Japan, the United Arab Emirates, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Taiwan. Tetangco recognized that government and banking institutions have been aggressively encouraging Filipinos overseas to course their remittances to their families in the Philippines through the formal banking system. Banks and non-bank remittance companies have been heeding the BSP challenge to have faster, safer and more efficient remittance delivery. In fact, the Philippines is credited to have launched one of the world’s first mobile phone-based remittance service. Specifically, the Philippines now has improved platform for remittances through the adoption of advanced systems and new technologies such as internet/on-line banking, phone banking and through short messaging. Tetangco said the Philippines now has enhanced and expanded financial products and services including bills payment arrangements, international money/cash cards, remittance network expansion, as well as new correspondent remittance agreements with host countries. To promote the efficient delivery of competitively-priced remittance services by banks and other remittance service providers, the BSP issued a circular requiring banks and non-bank financial institutions to post the charges for their various remittance products, including classification of costs. This disclosure requirement also provides the necessary information for the worker or his/her beneficiary to make a more informed decision in bank selection. The OFWs as bank clients also benefited from the improvements in the country’s payments and settlement systems, such as the full interconnection of the three major automated teller machine (ATM) networks; and the continuing approval by the Bangko Sentral of alternative mechanisms for sending money, such as SMS-based applications for remittances. The interconnection of the three networks facilitates greater accessibility as more ATMs can now serve the withdrawal needs of depositors. More importantly, it reduces the cost of transactions since it eliminated fees associated with the use of international “switch" to connect the three networks. Tetangco said the goal is to have further improvements in order to have a remittance system based on transparency, efficiency, security and fair prices. - GMANews.TV