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SMART
Communications Inc. announced Monday that it will soon
launch pilot projects in the Middle East and Europe to
offer low-cost remittance services using its mobile
phone-based financial services platform.
The
platform will enable mobile operators and banks to serve
the remittance needs of migrant populations in their
respective countries. Through the platform, migrant
workers can send remittances to their countries via SIM
(subscriber identification module)-based services
anytime, anywhere.
Dubbed
the Smart Services Hub, mobile operators at the sending
country can offer menu-based services that enable their
migrant subscribers to use their mobile phones to remit
funds drawn from accounts in a partner bank in the
sending country.
The
transaction goes through an authorization, clearing and
settlement process that allows the funds to be deposited
in an account in a partner bank in the receiving country
or in an electronic wallet linked to the recipient’s
mobile phone. Both the sender and recipient will be
notified via a text message that the remittance
transaction has been completed.
“This
innovative service will give overseas workers, initially
Filipinos, the power of choice. Using their mobile
phones, they can send home money in the amounts they
wish whenever they want and wherever they may be at a
more affordable cost,” said Napoleon Nazareno, Smart
president, in a statement.
“For our
partner banks and operators, this will enable them to
offer robust and secure mobile phone-based remittance
services in a cost- and time-efficient manner and thus
allow them to serve the growing market of migrant
workers,” he added.
In the
Middle East, Smart’s pilot is in the Gulf state of
Bahrain,
which aims to initially serve overseas Filipino workers
and their families. It is working with MTC Vodafone
Bahrain of the MTC Group, one of the leading mobile
phone groups in the region with over 24.9 million
subscribers in the Middle East and Africa. Smart is also
firming up a partnership with a leading regional bank
based in Bahrain.
In
Europe, Smart is pursuing a similar arrangement with a
telco and a bank in Italy.
In
cooperation with the GSM (global system for mobile
communication) Association, Smart will also conduct a
pilot with MasterCard as an authorization, clearing and
settlement partner.
“We are
confident that this initiative will give rise to viable
businesses for all the parties involved. At the same
time, we will deliver an innovative service that will
help make life easier for migrant and overseas workers’
communities in many countries,” said Nazareno.
About 10
million Filipinos today live overseas in nearly 200
countries and territories. In 2006, they remitted $14
billion through official channels, not counting the
several billions more being sent through informal means.
Since
2000, Smart said it has been actively promoting mobile
commerce usage in the Philippines through various
services that run on the Smart Money Platform. These
services include Smart Money, the world’s first
electronic wallet card linked to a mobile phone which
won the 2001 3GSM Award for “Most Innovative GSM
Wireless Service for Customers.
In 2005,
Smart launched the world’s first mobile phone-based
remittance service called Smart Padala for Filipino
migrant workers.
Current
estimates say over $230 billion are annually remitted by
migrant workers worldwide back to their families,
accounting for an important source of income for the
economy of their home countries. According to a 2006
World Bank issue brief on migration and remittances,
nearly 200 million people worldwide live outside the
country of their birth. |
