Smart to pilot phone scheme for remittance

By Lenie Lectura

Reporter

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.

 

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