The agreement links Globe Telecom’s GCash remittance brand with Softbank Corp.’s fund-transfer facilities and the competitive rates they offer to clients in Japan and around the world.

Softbank Payments Service is a subsdiary of Softbank Corp., a leading telecommunications and media company in Japan.

Softbank Payments Services president and chief executive officer Shinichi Ata, in tandem with its Manila partners, announced the alliance in a statement sent by email on Sunday following the completion of its registration in Japan under that country’s Act on Financial Settlements.

The agreement permits the remitting units to engage in the trassmission or receipt of Japanese yen and Philippine peso to and from each other.

A customer using GCash Remit in the Philippines may deposit money in Japanese yen in advance and remit a given amount in pesos from the deposit to the Philippines on a 24/7 basis by using either a personal computer or a Smartphone.

The remitting units commit to deliver the remittance to recipients as quickly as inside of 10 minutes in some 18,000 pick-up outlets throughout the Philippines, or directly through a mobile phone previously enrolled with Globe’s GCash mobile money platform or alternately to one’s account in a bank.

According to the statement, clients are charged a minimum of ¥500 Japanese for each transaction up to ¥10,000 equivalent, considered the lowest in the industry.

Remittances exceeding ¥10,000 up to ¥30,000 are charged a fee of ¥700 and anything above ¥30,000 are charged ¥1,350.

Globe Telecoms said the remittance tie-up will benefit Filipinos living in Japan who may now send their earnings back to the Philippines quickly in a secure and convenient manner.

Softbank vowed to extend the same quality services not only in the Philippines but to other destinations in the region.

The move should help facilitate the flow of more remittances from Japan and in many other places around the world where Filipinos have worked for many years.

Some $20 billion worth of remittance have been expected this year by regulators who previously forecasted resilient remittance growth averaging at least seven percent this year no matter the disruptions in countries in the Middle East and North Africa where a large population of overseas Filipino workers abound.