IPM

Cell phone firms eye new anti-fraud rules

2008-07-17T10:55:00.001-07:00

Domestic cell phone companies, including the nation's [Japan's] three leading firms, will voluntarily introduce new rules to prevent so-called remittance fraud using cell phones, such as only allowing up to five lines per customer, it was learned Wednesday.

Police will cooperate by, for instance, responding to inquiries from cell phone retailers requesting information about driver's licenses to prevent the use of forged licenses.

At present, driver's licenses are used for about 70 percent of identifications when customers concluding cell phone contracts at shop counters need to prove who they are.

The new voluntary rules will be enforced as soon as NTT Docomo Inc., SoftBank Mobile Corp. and KDDI Corp. and others are ready to implement the regulations. The exact timing for the new scheme is being coordinated among concerned parties, sources said.

The total costs incurred by remittance fraud cases has topped 100 billion yen over the past four years, with some victims driven to suicide.

In one particularly common style of remittance fraud, a con man concludes several dozen contracts under one name using a forged driver's license. He and his accomplices then concoct stories and begin calling people to try to persuade them to send money.

In response to the problem, the Liberal Democratic Party established a task force on combatting remittance fraud, headed by House of Representatives member Isshu Sugawara, which reached a basic agreement on the rules with cell phone firms and the National Police Agency.

According to the agreement, the number of cell phone lines that can be held under one person's name will be limited to five, the sources said.

In addition, when cell phone firms judge it will be necessary to confirm the identities of clients when concluding contracts with them, they will ask police to confirm the authenticity of the customers' licenses.

If a customer refuses to submit to the policy inquiry, firms will decline a contract, and will contact police if they become suspicious about a customer, the sources added.

Cell phone firms eye new anti-fraud rules : National : DAILY YOMIURI ONLINE (The Daily Yomiuri)

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Remittances stay resilient

2008-07-17T10:52:00.001-07:00

By Maricel E. Burgonio, Reporter

MONEY sent home by overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) rose significantly in the first five months of the year due to steady growth of deployed workers, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said Tuesday.

In a statement, BSP Governor Amando Tetangco Jr. said total remittances grew 14.7 percent year on-year to $6.8 billion in the five-month period. In May alone, remittances rose 15.6 percent year on year to $1.4 billion.

The bulk of remittances continued to emanate from the US, Saudi Arabia, Canada, the United Kingdom, Italy, the United Arab Emirates, Singapore, Japan and Hong Kong.

“Behind the continued expansion in remittances for the period was the steady growth in the number of deployed Filipino workers and enhanced financial services offered by the banks to overseas Filipinos,” Tetangco said.

Preliminary data from the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration showed that the number of deployed Filipino workers worldwide jumped by 39.5 percent to 533,945 for the first five months of the year.

Tetangco said this reflected the distinct preference for the skills, quality and competence of Filipino workers.

More jobs were available to qualified Filipinos particularly from current expansion of a giant oil processing complex in the Middle East to service the rising global demand for crude.

Meanwhile, banks and non-bank remittance centers have been aggressive in expanding financial services to OFWs and their beneficiaries.

Tetangco said the establishment of more remittance centers, correspondent banks, and branches or representative offices abroad, together with the existing tie-ups with foreign financial counterparts, is expected to further facilitate the flow of remittances.

Click here to read entire article: The Manila Times Internet Edition | BUSINESS > OFW remittances stay resilient

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Fed Accepting Comments On Proposed Credit Card Rules

2008-07-07T10:05:00.001-07:00

More reasons we at IPM see banked and unbanked people moving to more pre-paid, stored value card and electronic transaction products.

Article follows:

Hat Tip: Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis

The Fed has proposed sweeping changes for the credit card industry and is now accepting comments. MarketWatch sounded the horn in Your own bully pulpit.

"The Federal Reserve is accepting comments through Aug. 4 on credit-card reform rules it proposed in May. (The deadline for comments regarding related proposals, mainly to do with credit-card disclosures, is sooner: July 18.)

Already, more than 9,300 people have commented on the sweeping set of proposed changes that, among other things, would prohibit credit-card companies in some instances from hitting you with a higher interest rate on debt you've already incurred.

The proposed rules also would prohibit "two-cycle billing," in which banks compute interest on debt on days preceding the most recent billing cycle, a practice that can result in borrowers paying interest on debt paid off during the previous month's grace period."

Mish's Comment: Discover Card uses the two cycle billing method. For more on two cycle billing, please see Read the Fine Print On Credit Cards.

"Credit industry disagrees

Credit-card issuers say the proposed rules are bad news for consumers.
"We are deeply concerned that these rules will result in less competition, higher consumer prices, fewer consumer choices and reduced consumer access to credit cards," said Edward Yingling, president and chief executive of the American Bankers Association, a Washington-based trade group, in a statement released soon after the Fed's proposal."

Mish's Comment: The credit card companies do not give a damn about consumers. Here is a better translation of their concerns: "We are deeply concerned that these rules will result in fewer fees, less revenue, and less profit for the industry."

"And the Fed rules don't really address fees. That's where Congress may step in. A veritable feast of pro-consumer bills has been introduced over the past year or so.

In February, Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., introduced H.R. 5244, a bill that, among other things, would end "universal default" -- when a credit-card issuer raises a consumer's interest rate based on late payments to other, unrelated creditors. The bill would also prohibit "any time, any reason" changes in credit-card terms, with certain exceptions.

Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., recently outlined a bill he intends to introduce with similar provisions to Maloney's, such as requiring banks mail statements 21 days before the bill is due rather than the current 14, according to Dodd's statement.

In May 2007, Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., introduced S. 1395, which proposes a cap on "penalty" interest-rate hikes to no more than seven percentage points above the previous interest rate. The bill would also prohibit charging interest on fees, among other provisions.

Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., introduced S. 2753 in March. Like Dodd's proposal, the bill limits the ways in which banks offer credit to people under age 21. Also, it would prevent late-payment fees on any payment postmarked by the payment date, among other changes."

Reform Is Coming

Credit card reform as well as a potential rewrite of the bankruptcy reform act of 2005 are very likely under the next Congress. Please see Bank of America's Parking Meter Play for more discussion of this theme.

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis: Fed Accepting Comments On Proposed Credit Card Rules

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Money is just an SMS away

2008-07-03T11:27:00.001-07:00

This is a service that will soon be available through IPM for remittance transactions from U.S. to Mexico and beyond.

Article follows:

By JO TIM BUONG

INDONESIANS sending money home do not need to stand in line anymore because they can now do it with their mobile phones.

Local mobile content company, Com2U Sdn Bhd recently launched moneyMe, an operator-independent mobile remittance service, to immediately and securely transfer money within Malaysia and Indonesia via SMS.

The service currently allows Maxis and DiGi mobile subscribers to transfer money between Malaysia and Indonesia.

Com2u plans to make the service available to Celcom subscribers next month.

Currently, most fund transfers to Indonesia are done manually at banks and results are not instantaneous, Com2U said.

Com2u decided to launch its service in Indonesia based on the huge number of its workers earning a living in Malaysia. It estimates that about 66% of foreign workers in Malaysia are from Indonesia.

“Most of them come from ‘under-banked’ areas and the beneficiaries live in those under-banked areas,” said Tan Sri Ahmad Mohd Don, Com2u chairman.

Ahmad added that every family in those under-banked areas would have at least one mobile phone that is shared among its members.

This he said, makes mobile remittance a perfect service for them.Com2U has also established a strategic partnership with PT Ebays, an authorised marketing distributor of Duit Pos Multiguna Service in Indonesia to allow beneficiaries to withdraw funds at Pos Indonesia outlets with the Wesel Pos Instant Service, a remittance service found in Indonesian post offices.

“It’s as easy as reloading your mobile airtime credit,” said Eugene Loke, Com2U chief executive officer told In.Tech after launching the service last week.Registration and subscription via SMS to the service is free. After registering, users can go to any outlet with e-pay facilities to load the desired amount to their moneyMe mobile wallet.

E-pay facilities can be found at numerous bookstores, convenient stores and restaurants nationwide.Subscribers are allowed to transfer up to RM50,000 a day and are charged a processing fee from as low as RM9.

The beneficiary will be notified with a text message identifying the amount and sender of the funds and it can be cashed at any Pos Indonesia agents.

MoneyMe’s functionality is guarded by a Personal Identification Number (PIN) and a subscriber’s account details are not stored on the phone.

“They can call moneyMe customer service to freeze the account if they lose their mobile phones,” Loke explained.

Com2u said it will be expanding its moneyMe service to banks in Indonesia to make it even more convenient for beneficiaries to claim their funds.

The company said it also plans to expand the service to other countries in South-East Asia but did not elaborate further.

Money is just an SMS away

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Hackers steal $2M from Citi ATMs

2008-07-03T08:04:00.001-07:00

Citibank ATM breach reveals PIN security problems - Jul. 2, 2008

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) -- Hackers broke into Citibank's network of ATMs inside 7-Eleven stores and stole customers' PIN codes, according to recent court filings that revealed a disturbing security hole in the most sensitive part of a banking record.

The scam netted the alleged identity thieves millions of dollars. But more importantly for consumers, it indicates criminals were able to access PINs - the numeric passwords that theoretically are among the most closely guarded elements of banking transactions - by attacking the back-end computers responsible for approving the cash withdrawals.

The case against three people in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York highlights a significant problem.

Hackers are targeting the ATM system's infrastructure, which is increasingly built on Microsoft Corp.'s (MSFT, Fortune 500) Windows operating system and allows machines to be remotely diagnosed and repaired over the Internet. And despite industry standards that call for protecting PINs with strong encryption - which means encoding them to cloak them to outsiders - some ATM operators apparently aren't properly doing that. The PINs seem to be leaking while in transit between the automated teller machines and the computers that process the transactions.

"PINs were supposed be sacrosanct - what this shows is that PINs aren't always encrypted like they're supposed to be," said Avivah Litan, a security analyst with the Gartner research firm. "The banks need much better fraud detection systems and much better authentication."

It's unclear how many Citibank customers were affected by the breach, which extended at least from October 2007 to March of this year and was first reported by technology news Web site Wired.com. The bank has nearly 5,700 Citibank-branded ATMs inside 7-Eleven Inc. stores throughout the United States, but it doesn't own or operate any of them.

That responsibility falls on two companies: Houston-based Cardtronics Inc. (CATM), which owns all the machines but only operates some, and Brookfield, Wis.-based Fiserv Inc. (FISV, Fortune 500), which operates the others.

A critical issue in the investigation is how the hackers infiltrated the system, a question that still hasn't been answered publicly.

All that's known is they broke into the ATM network through a server at a third-party processor, which means they probably didn't have to touch the ATMs at all to pull off the heist.

They could have gained administrative access to the machines - which means they had carte blanche to grab information - through a flaw in the network or by figuring out those computers' passwords. Or it's possible they installed a piece of malicious software on a banking server to capture unencrypted PINs as they passed through.

What that means for consumers is that their PINs were stolen from machines that showed no signs of tampering they could detect. In previous PIN thefts, thieves generally took steps that might draw notice - sending "phishing" e-mails, for example, or installing false-front keypads or even tiny cameras on ATMs.

Getting the PINs is a key step for identity thieves. It lets criminals encode stolen account information onto blank ATM cards and withdraw piles of cash from compromised accounts.

Click here to read entire article: Citibank ATM breach reveals PIN security problems - Jul. 2, 2008

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Credit Card Issuers Face Bigger Losses Than Expected

2008-06-29T11:42:00.001-07:00

Hat Tip: Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis

We at IPM think this is a positive development for our stored value pre-paid card market. As the credit card market continues to drop, the demand will continue to increase for stored value cards as a way to conduct electronic monetary transactions.

The stored value pre-paid will continue to expand in the unbanked and banked markets.

Article from CNNMoney.com follows:

Dow Jones Newswire

June 27, 2008: 10:54 AM EST
By Aparajita Saha-Bubna and Marshall Eckblad

Investors sold on plastic may want to reduce their balances.

Credit card issuers - ranging from standalone companies such as Discover Financial Services (DFS) and American Express Co. (AXP) to those at banks like Washington Mutual Inc. (WM) and Citigroup Inc. (C) - are likely to suffer worse losses in the coming quarters than initially expected.

Hit by the double-whammy of a growing reliance on credit cards by cash- strapped borrowers and a worsening economic downturn, issuers' earnings should be dented by deeper loss reserves and higher defaults.

New credit card data from Fitch Ratings indicate that losses are hovering around or have exceeded five-year averages and issuers have increased their loss expectations or withdrawn guidance in the face of rising unemployment, record- high gas prices and a housing slump that has yet to bottom.

"The deterioration in credit cards is accelerating faster than many had expected," said Christopher Wolfe, an analyst at Fitch and one of the authors of the report published Friday. "The message we are trying to deliver is that things are going to get worse before they get better. Thus far, credit card businesses have been profitable but that could change.

Click here to read entire article: Credit Card Issuers Face Bigger Losses Than Expected

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Fed Looking To Bend Rules To Aid Banks

2008-06-27T11:55:00.001-07:00

Hat Tip: Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis

CNBC is reporting Fed May Ease Rules on Private Equity Bank Stakes.

The U.S. Federal Reserve is considering steps to make it easier for private-equity firms and others to invest in banks, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday, a move that could open the door to more capital for cash-starved banks.

Fed officials recently have met with big buyout firms, including J.C. Flowers, Carlyle Group, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Warburg Pincus, and banking lawyers to discuss the obstacles, according to people familiar with the matter. Under federal law, to own more than 24.9 percent of a bank, an entity must register as a bank holding company, which is subject to heavy regulation and can be forced to serve as a "source of strength" for the bank, the Journal said.

Ownership of more than 9.9 percent of a bank also subjects the entity to regulatory scrutiny to ensure that it isn't controlling—or even influencing—the bank's operations.

The Fed can't change those laws, but it has room to maneuver in how it interprets them. This announcement today is not unexpected. It is in strict accordance with the Fed Uncertainty Principle.

Uncertainty Principle Corollary Number Four: The Fed simply does not care whether its actions are illegal or not. The Fed is operating under the principle that it's easier to get forgiveness than permission. And forgiveness is just another means to the desired power grab it is seeking.

When it comes to new rules or bending the rules, if the Fed does not like an interpretation, it will simply make the one it wants. The key point now,however, is the Fed feels a personal need to intervene directly in the markets to help line up sources for capital.

If the worst was over as Bernanke suggested (See Things That Have Not Yet Happened) then why is there a need for these kind of actions?

Have the Sovereign Wealth Funds in Singapore, China, etc. had enough? It's looking more like that every day. Yet the writeoffs continue.

Click here to read entire post: Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis: Fed Looking To Bend Rules To Aid Banks

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Consumer ire puts ATM charges on hold

2008-06-24T22:13:00.001-07:00

22:19' 15/06/2008 (GMT+7) VietNamNet

After first announcing that all ATM transactions would be charged a minimum fee of 1,000 VND starting in July, the Vietnam Bank Card Association has now reconsidered its plan following questions about the current state of ATM services and infrastructure.

An ATM of the Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam (Vietcombank)ATM cardholders began speaking out against the policy almost as soon as it was announced, claiming that the poor quality of most banks’ ATM services did not merit their collecting additional charges.

“If banks get fees from customers, they have to ensure good services. I don’t feel happy with the fact that at the moment sometimes ATMs don’t work properly,” said Nguyen Van Hung, construction engineer in Hanoi.

Many customers such as Nguyen Quoc Viet, a construction workers from Hanoi , say they face difficulty in finding an ATM at the end of month to get their salaries.

Students who often use the ATM as a means of receiving money from their families are vowing not to use the service anymore if fees are charged. “If the bank does so, it changes the contract with customers. Having to pay fees makes students’ lives more difficult,” said Tran Van Phu, sixth year student from Hanoi ’s Medical University.

The plan to charge fees has been delayed until the infrastructure is in place to improve ATM service quality, said the chairwoman of the Vietnam Bank Card Association, Nguyen Thu Ha. The association will propose to the State Bank the specifics on fee collection, but is not ready to choose a date for implementation.

The Government has been pushing business and agencies to move from paying salaries in cash to using banks and paying through ATMs since the beginning of 2008. Charging fees right now could work against this effort.

Right now only about 10 percent of Vietnamese people use bank services like ATM cards or credit cards, reported the MCKinsey company.

There are now about nine million cards in-use out of which 4,500 are ATM cards. An additional problem is that each ATM system only accepts certain kinds of cards. To help alleviate accessibility problems, banks are joining forces.

“With the present scale of the problem, it is very difficult for any bank to do it alone. So co-operating is the best way to improve the situation,” said Nguyen Duc Huong, general director of Lien Viet Bank. Banknetvn and Smarlink have officially operated their bank alliance for the last five months. With this new alliance, owners of cards belonging to Vietcombank, Vbard, BIDV, Vietinbank and Techcombank can do their transactions at ATMs.

By the end of March, the amount of ATMs of the five member banks had gone up to 3,614, accounting for 64 percent of the total machines in the market.As planned, by the third quarter of 2008, Banknetvn and Smartlink will cooperate to increase the number of machines to 4,500.

VietNamNet - Consumer ire puts ATM charges on hold

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Washington Pays Youth Workers with Prepaid Cards

2008-06-24T22:04:00.001-07:00

ePaynews.com Jun 24 2008 :

The Washington, DC, Department of Employment is using prepaid debit cards to pay the wages of 19,000 workers participating in a summer youth employment scheme.

The 2008 Passport-to-Work Summer Youth Program offers young people an opportunity to work on a temporary basis in a wide range of occupations. The 10-week program is offered to young people living in DC who are aged 14 to 21.

The prepaid Visa cards are issued by JPMorgan Chase as part of its Payroll debit card program, which was first launched in 1987. Processing for the cards is also provided by JPMorgan.

The cards can be used at the point of sale or at ATMs with a PIN. They are reloadable and will be funded twice a month during the 10-week program.

“We hope the real-life experience gained by using payroll debit cards to budget and purchase items will help these students become responsible for their own finances,” says Dr Natwar M. Gandhi, chief financial officer for the District of Columbia.

Another advantage of the cards is that, by not incurring check-cashing and bank account fees, they will save the workers money, Gandhi says.

ePaynews.com - the payment news and resource Center

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Line of Credit Linked to U.S. Prepaid Card

2008-06-23T09:19:00.001-07:00

ePaynews.com Jun 20 2008 :

Meta Payment Systems (MPS) is offering small loans that are deposited on a prepaid card to the millions of Americans who cannot afford conventional bank loans.

The U.S. prepaid card firm originally launched the iAdvance Line of Credit product in February 2008, but is now enhancing it with the help of Fiserv and TransUnion.

The basic version of iAdvance does not involve any credit checks. However, in autumn 2008, MPS will launch a version of iAdvance which will offer lower interest rates and longer payback periods to credit-worthy borrowers. Currently, the company charges $2.50 for each $20 borrowed, equal to an annual percentage rate of 150 percent.

TransUnion says it will provide MPS with risk management and credit decisioning systems for the new version of iAdvance, while U.S. payments software firm Fiserv will supply processing and receivables management technology.

Once a borrower has applied for either a basic or enhanced iAdvance loan, the money is available immediately on a prepaid card issued by MPS’ parent Sioux Falls, South Dakota-based MetaBank. The borrower’s repayment performance is reported to the three main U.S. credit reference agencies, Equifax, TransUnion and Experian.According to MPS, the loan application process takes just a few minutes.

ePaynews.com - the payment news and resource Center

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Mexican Issuers Leverages Canadian Gift Card Software

2008-06-23T08:57:00.001-07:00

ePaynews.com

Jun 20 2008 : Mexico’s Mercadotecnia, Ideas y Tecnologia (MIT) is launching a gift card program using software developed by Toronto-based Smart Processing Solutions.

MIT will use the SmartIssuerPro system to provide gift cards which will be issued by its clients.SmartIssuerPro enables independent sales organizations (ISOs), financial institutions, retailers and processors to issue and manage prepaid, debit, gift, and loyalty card programs in-house.MIT provides transaction switching services for Mexican banks, retailers and payment networks.

Smart Processing Solutions provides processing and switching software for banks, ISOs, processors, acquirers and retailers. In Canada, its software is used to drive a network of around 11,000 non-bank ATMs.

ePaynews.com - the payment news and resource Center

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American Express is OPEN

2008-06-21T15:03:00.001-07:00

Chris Brogan shows how American Express' OPEN FORUM website works and has positive influence on how businesses are run.

by Chris Brogan
June 21, 2008 OPEN Forum

It’s interesting to see an implementation of content networks the way I first envisioned them in May 2006.

I recently heard from Federated Media’s James Gross about American Express’s OPEN Forum. Basically, it’s a project where AMEX through Federated has a blog area that aggregates interesting business content, with the mindset of gathering a conversation in a sponsored area.

Mentioned as a place to find insight from business experts, it’s essentially a way for AMEX to spread its brand across some select blog content (with the bloggers’ permission).

I asked James what the plan was: The primary goal was for OPEN to start identifying, curating, and participating in a media landscape that was constantly changing. They had done a lot of work with other publishers, but it was always on the publishers domain and like most microsites, tended to be lightly trafficked and not converting people to the OPEN forum.

Not to mention, with what we call, “the de coupling of media” surveys were finding that most SMBs were using blogs and other forms of social media far more than major publishing brand’s SMB sites. It’s interesting to me, because it’s the other way around from how we perceive our blogs.

I think it’s definitely a way to build a content network that would be more useful to end readers. It’s not that we don’t want more traffic to our blog, but that there are ways this content can be made more useful to end readers, by being curated by others in interesting ways. That’s why we use Creative Commons. That’s why we use RSS. It’s the plan.

Click here to read entire post American Express is OPEN | chrisbrogan.com

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Anticipated Demand for Prepaid Cards among Latin America Unbanked

2008-06-20T12:32:00.001-07:00

Paynews.com

Jun 17 2008

By 2015, 324 million unbanked Latin American consumers could have general-purpose prepaid cards, according to a study by NovoPayment.

The Miami, Florida- and Caracas, Venezuela-based firm develops prepaid card programs for the unbanked in Latin America.

NovoPayment says that by 2015, annual general-purpose prepaid card spending by unbanked Latin American consumers could reach US$214 billion a year. Prepaid cards will bring access to point-of-sale, ATM, mobile and online card transactions to consumers who today rely almost exclusively on cash, NovoPayment says.

The study by NovoPayments covers 15 countries across Latin America including Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Guatemala, and Venezuela. NovoPayment says that Brazil, followed by Mexico, will be the biggest general-purpose prepaid card market in the region by 2015.

In Brazil, there will be 109.9 million general-purpose prepaid cards in 2015, accounting for US$22.15 billion of spending, NovoPayment says. In Mexico, there will be 64 million general-purpose prepaid cards in 2015, accounting for US$54.34 billion of spending.

“Our study discovered a significant number of consumers with the income, access to infrastructure, and spending behavior to be viable users of prepaid general-purpose cards,” says NovoPayment CEO Anabel Perez. “Around 57 percent of the Latin American population has the need, the capacity, the means, and the necessary economic and social incentives to warrant prepaid cards.”

ePaynews.com - the payment news and resource Center

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BBK makes remittance easy for NRIs

2008-06-19T10:21:00.001-07:00

MANAMA: Bahrain-based BBK has signed an agreement with Bahrain Indian International Exchange Company (BIIECO) to provide all its non-resident Indians (NRI) banking customers the opportunity of seamless remittance.

Customers will now be able to remit funds from their BBK account in Bahrain to their BBK or any other bank account in India.

Present at the signing ceremony held at the BBK head office in Manama were BBK assistant general manager - international banking division Ashish Sarkar, NRI business head Mudit Mathur, BIIECO chairman and managing director Khalil Ebrahim Qamber and general manager Lakshmi Narasimhan.

"BBK is one of the leading retail banks in the kingdom and we have a strong base of NRI clients in Bahrain and Kuwait," Mr Sarkar said."With this tie-up we will now provide them with a service to remit money back home more efficiently. In contrast to the traditional remittance services available, this would be a more convenient and trustworthy method as the client is directly dealing with their bank instead of a third party."

Our commitment at BBK NRI business remains, to serve the Indian community, through our own branches via such alliances with the best-in-the-industry partners.

"Our endeavour is to offer a wide range of quality products and services to our clients to cater to their growing needs with the BBK quality of service," he said."This is a proud moment for us at BIIECO to partner with a leading bank like BBK. This tie-up will enable us to reach out to the vast NRI community and increase our volume of business," Mr Qamber said.

http://www.gulf-daily-news.com/Story.asp?Article=219257&Sn=BUSI&IssueID=31076

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First Bank Steps Into Chinese Market via Cooperation with Sumitomo Mitsui

2008-06-17T10:23:00.001-07:00

The Chinese remittance market is starting to open.

Taipei, June 12, 2008 (CENS)

First Commercial Bank has successfully stepped into the Chinese banking market, despite the absence of business points there, thanks to the cooperation with Japan`s Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp.

Chang Chao-shun, chairman of First Bank, pointed out yesterday (June 11) that the bank has successfully provided yuan-denominated loans to a number of Taiwanese-invested enterprises in China for working-capital use via the Chinese branches of Sumitomo Mitsui Banking. The bank, though, still plans to set up its own Chinese branches, according to Chang.

The business is part of the cooperative venture between the two banks following their signing of the memorandum of cooperation on Dec. 17, last year. During a meeting reviewing the achievements of the cooperation last week in Taipei, ranking officials of the two banks looked into the results of their cooperation in the fields of corporate banking, greater China business, syndicated loan, forex remittance, cooperation between overseas branches, credit card, trust custody, forex trading, fund maneuvering, consumer banking, risk management, and personnel exchanges.

An official of First Bank noted that both parties have attained good results in the fields of client recommendation, syndicated loans, forex remittance, financial trading, loans for Taiwanese enterprises in China, and personnel exchanges. Thanks to the assistance of Sumitomo Mitsui, First Bank, for instance, has solicited substantial amount of banking business for Japanese individuals and enterprises in Taiwan.

The official reported that the bank will intensify its cooperation with the Japanese partner, especially in the core businesses of greater China market, domestic and international syndicated loan, wealth management, and marketing, this year.(by Philip Liu)

CENS.com – The Taiwan Economic News

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Microfinance institutions can facilitate remittances

2008-06-16T10:42:00.001-07:00

From: Manila Times web edition

Sunday, June 15, 2008

By Maricel E. Burgonio, Reporter

Microfinance institutions can facilitate remittances Microfinance refers to the provision of financial services to low-income clients, including the self-employed. It also refers to a movement that envisions “a world in which as many poor and near-poor households as possible have permanent access to an appropriate range of high quality financial srvices, including not just credit, but also savings, insurance, and fund transfers.”

Microfinance institutions can take the form of cooperatives and other self-help groups, rural banks, and small economic formations. They are now emerging as remittance channels and can effectively play this role, as they are present in many rural areas and poor people’s enclaves.

Lately, money transfer agent PetNet Inc. has decided to tap microfinance institutions to expand its remittance market.

Lorenzo T. Ocampo, PetNet president, said PetNet has partnered with microfinance institution Alalay Sa Kaunlaran, Inc. (ASKI) to widen its market in Regions 1, 2 and 3 that ASKI covers.

“In the partnership, Aski’s clients can remit through PetNet. These areas are underserved,” Ocampo told reporters.

PetNet signed on Wednesday a memorandum of agreement (MOA) with ASKI. Under the partnership, ASKI’s clients may channel its remittances through PetNet.

ASKI has 21 branches in the three regions, all of which are areas with high demand for microfinance loans. PetNet, meanwhile, is a money transfer agent of Western Union, has 200 locations nationwide.

Rolando Victoria, ASKI’s executive director, said its loan portfolio increased by 20 percent year-on-year to P240 million as of May. It also has a capital base of P63 million.

ASKI provides P5,000 to P150,000 worth of micro loans with 3 percent monthly interest rate to its clients.

“There is strong demand for microloans such as in agricultural loans and for small businesses,” he said. It also provides microinsurance with only P20 paid every week in exchange for P120,000 insurance coverage.

ASKI also plans to use make use of ATM services in releasing loans to their clients.

Besides ASKI, PetNet also signed a MOA with GSIS Family Bank in April.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has been encouraging banks to engage in microfinance, a flagship program for poverty alleviation.Microfinance loans posted double-digit growth last year as more banks increased their participation in microfinance lending.

Amando M. Tetangco Jr., governor of the BSP, earlier said microfinance loans grew 12 percent to P6 billion last year.About 229 banks are into microfinancing, with a total client base of 780,000.

The Manila Times Internet Edition | OFW TIMES > Microfinance institutions can facilitate remittances

Blogged with the Flock Browser

The Ethics of the Bottom of the Pyramid

2008-06-15T02:21:00.001-07:00

Hat Tip: World Bank

It looks like Ethical Corporation has caught on to the ethics of serving the bottom of the pyramid. An article in their most recent newsletter discusses opportunities in the vast bottom of the pyramid market in Latin America. About 360 million people in Latin America fit into this category. So far, local companies have left multinationals in the dust:

A third noteworthy trend is the leadership of national companies over their international peers. Micro-insurance firm Paralife in Mexico, Peruvian financial intermediary Cajasur and many of the other high performers in the index are local firms. With the bulk of their local market being low-income consumers, such firms have learned to search out opportunities among the “majority” by default.

Multinational companies, by contrast, often lack the experience, the local relationships, the market understanding and often the vision to trouble themselves with poor customers. Yahoo, Microsoft and PepsiCo feature among the big-brand laggards in the index.

What's it going to take for the multinationals to catch on?

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Super ATMs Coming to a Location Near You

2008-05-15T11:40:00.001-07:00

Here is a story about a machines that don't do nearly as many things as our new CCARDS machines will do. We like these machines being out there in the marketplace because people become accustomed to using machines to perform banking tasks previously done only with person to person contact in a traditional bank. Story follows:

Hat Tip: Digitaltransactions.net

(May 8, 2008) Non-bank ATM network operator Cardtronics Inc. has been trying to pump up transaction volume on its advanced-function Vcom machines ever since it bought them last July from 7-Eleven Inc. as part of the 5,500-machine ATM fleet the convenience-store giant unloaded for $137.3 million. Next week, part of that strategy takes effect when the 26 million members of credit unions belonging to the Co-Op Financial Services network will be able to make envelope-less deposits at the machines.

The 2,200 Vcoms, manufactured by NCR Corp. and located in 7-Eleven convenience stores, are capable of imaging checks, sparing the depositor of the need to enclose checks in and fill out a deposit envelope as is required for a traditional ATM deposit. Jack Antonini, president and chief executive of Houston-based Cardtronics, revealed the pact this morning at Cardtronics’ first-quarter earnings conference call. He also mentioned Cardtronics’ previously disclosed deal with another credit-union network, Financial Services Center Cooperatives Inc.

“Between the two of them, 30 million customers will now be able to make deposits 24 hours a day,” he said, adding that “we’ve got another very large bank in the queue.”

Jim Hanisch, executive vice president at Rancho Cucamonga, Calif.-based Co-Op Financial Services, tells Digital Transactions News that the Cardtronics deal helps put credit unions at the forefront of a new banking service in which most of the headlines have gone to giants such as Bank of America Corp., Wells Fargo & Co., and JPMorgan Chase & Co. Co-Op first began testing an image-capable ATM at California Center Credit Union in November 2005 (Digital Transactions News, Dec. 7, 2006). Some 150 of the network’s 5,400 ATMs now offer imaged deposits. “We’re beyond test,” says Hanisch.

Co-Op and Cardtronics did not disclose revenue arrangements, but the credit union to which the depositor belongs will pay interchange to Cardtronics as the ATM owner, according to Hanisch. The Vcoms are Citibank-branded, but Citi won’t be a party to the transactions.

While there have been some reports of imaging ATMs not working as they’re supposed to, Hanisch says Co-Op’s members have had few problems. The advantage for consumers is faster deposit verification and access to funds. For deployers, imaging ATMs need less servicing than traditional models. Hanisch says deployers typically send couriers to pick up checks from imaging machines only once or twice a month compared with daily for regular ATMs. “The hardware is relatively expensive, but it also changes the service dynamics for the ATM and it also makes it substantially more viable to place an ATM in an off-premise location for deposit taking,” he says. Co-Op also is working on a home-based deposit-capture service.

Cardtronics will be promoting image deposit as it seeks more business from financial institutions. “It’s an area that has a lot of banks very, very interested because it’s a cost saver and it’s a significant convenience improvement for their customers,” Antonini said.

The underperformance of the Vcoms contributed to Cardtronics’ first-quarter loss of $4.59 million, up from $3.45 million in the 2007 period. The Vcoms generated operating revenues of $1.24 million but had expenses of $2.27 million. Cardtronics is trying to reverse the Vcoms’ losses through cost reductions from contract renegotiations, bringing outsourced service functions in-house, and replacing low-volume Vcoms with traditional ATMs in some 7-Eleven stores. To build transaction volume, the company will concentrate its Vcom advertising efforts in about 15 major cities. Marketing efforts will highlight the Vcoms’ functions, which, besides imaging, include electronic bill payment.

Co-Op recently signed deals giving its 2,800 credit-union members’ depositors surcharge-free access to 350 Cardtronics machines in Costco Wholesale Corp. stores and all Walgreen Co. drug stores in Florida.

Meanwhile, boosted in large part by the 7-Eleven deal, Cardtronics today said its average number of transacting ATMs increased to 32,475 in the first quarter from 25,228 a year earlier. Some 3,674 machines are in the United Kingdom and Mexico. Total transactions grew 87% to 83 million from 44.4 million. Monthly cash-withdrawal transactions per ATM grew to an average of 553 from 412 in 2007’s first quarter, good for a gross profit of $290 per machine compared with $224 last year. More than 9,500 machines sport bank brands, Antonini said. In those branding deals, the bank and Cardtronics work out revenue arrangements to replace the surcharge fees—Cardtronics’ chief revenue source of revenue—from surcharge-free transactions initiated by the partner banks’ customers.

In all, Cardtronics reported first-quarter revenues of $115.1 million, up 61% from $71.7 million in the year-earlier quarter. While it is still profit-challenged, Cardtronics doesn’t plan to raise its surcharges to $3 as some big banks have. “We have not made any moves that extreme; we’d be concerned about our transaction counts being negatively [affected] if we did that,” said chief financial officer J. Chris Brewster.

Technorati Tags: financial kiosk, remittance, electronic transactions

International Remittance Legal Guide for Banks

2008-02-09T17:47:00.000-08:00

New Appleseed Guide Helps Banks Provide Fair and Efficient Services to Growing International Remittance Market
January 8, 2008

Appleseed, a network of public interest justice centers in the U.S. and Mexico, this morning released a first-of-its kind guide to assist banks and other financial institutions in better serving the growing remittance market. Immigrants living in the U.S. sent $45 billion to Mexico and Latin America in 2006, according to recent estimates from the Inter-American Development Bank.

In addition to providing a detailed market overview, “Banking in a Global Market” offers a comprehensive hands-on approach to setting up transparent and efficient remittance services, drawing on the experiences of large and small financial institutions throughout the U.S.
“Appleseed has found banks need guidance in starting remittance programs and serving the immigrant market. It’s win-win: by offering remittance services, financial institutions get new customers, and immigrants have more safe and convenient places to remit money, keep savings, build credit without paying high and unpredictable transaction fees,” said Betsy Cavendish, executive director of Appleseed. Over the past four years, Appleseed has educated immigrant communities about the U.S. financial services system and highlighted the market potential in immigrant communities to financial institutions. Appleseed has pressed for transparency in the remittance market, urged that a history of sending remittances be considered evidence of credit-worthiness, and fought taxation of remittances.

Approximately 100 banks and credit unions in the U.S. currently offer and actively market consumer remittance products. “That is a fraction of the number that could be providing remittance services to growing immigrant communities,” according to Ann Baddour, senior policy analyst for Texas Appleseed and lead author of the guide. Among Latin American immigrants, 70 percent of remittance senders use cash-to-cash transfer services through money transfer businesses such as Western Union and MoneyGram, while estimates of remittances sent through banks range from five percent to 19 percent.

Through detailed profiles of 11 financial institutions, Appleseed’s guide illustrates six approaches to setting up remittance programs. The profiled financial institutions are:BankCherokee , Central Bank of Kansas, Citizens State Bank, First Bank, Harris Bank, Latino Community Credit Union, Mitchell Bank, Pinnacle Bank, United Americas Bank, U.S. Bank and Wells Fargo.

###

Appleseed, a nonprofit network of 16 public interest justice centers in the United States and Mexico, uncovers and corrects social injustices through legal, legislative and market-based structural reform. Appleseed and Appleseed Centers bring together volunteers from the law, business and academic professions to devise long-term solutions to problems affecting the underprivileged and underrepresented in such areas as education and financial access. For more information, visit: www.appleseednetwork.org.

APPLESEED CONTACTS:
Patti RiippaCommunications Associate202-347-7960, ext. 104
Eric GutiérrezImmigration Policy Director202-347-7960, ext. 120(Available for Spanish-language media)
Ann BaddourSenior Policy Analyst and lead report authorAppleseed Financial Access Project512-473-2800, ext. 104512-203-3556 (cell)

CONTACTS FOR PROFILED FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS:
Latino Community Credit UnionAngel RomeroMedia Relations919-688-9270
United Americas BankJorge FormentPresident and CEO404-240-0101
Mitchell BankJames MaloneyPresident and CEO414-277-9080
Wells FargoLisa Westermann Assistant Vice President, Public Relations Wells Fargo Card Services415-222-6236 415-845-7759 (cell)
Pinnacle BankDaniel PadillaDirector of Latino Banking402-434-3134

MoneyBancard

2008-01-07T13:48:00.000-08:00

We have secured the Internet domain www.moneybancard.com and are launching a new pre-paid, stored value card which will be called MoneyBancard.

We think that this will be a dominant brand in the money remittance and stored value transaction market. Be sure to listen to our podcasts via the control on the right column of this blog to hear more about our concept of where this exploding market is going.

"Free Checking" Accounts, Not So Free

2007-11-20T11:12:00.000-08:00

From EarthTimes.org

Banks Reap Huge Profits From Overdraft Fees on 'Free Checking' Accounts

Posted : Mon, 19 Nov 2007 18:31:49 GMT
Author : California Reinvestment Coalition

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 19 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Banks are robbing their customers blind with overdraft fees. It is modern day usury to allow customers to spend money they don't have and then charge them excessive fees without their consent, as banks do with overdraft fees. The California Reinvestment Coalition (CRC) released a report today that reveals how the complicated and deceptive overdraft policies at California's biggest banks allow them to reap huge profits from their mostly working class account holders.

"The free checking accounts that banks advertise are not really free. Customers are lured into debt traps by being allowed to use their debit/ATM cards even when there is no money in their account," says CRC Senior Policy Advocate Rhea Serna.
Click here to read more.

By using IPM pre-paid, stored value cards instead of bank accounts, unknown fees can be avoided.

Cross-Border Banking

2007-10-28T19:31:00.000-07:00

From U.S. Federal Reserve Bank of New York

Customers who bank with U.S. depository institutions enjoy some of the best and strongest consumer protection laws and deposit insurance available in the world. These safeguards include laws and regulation designed to ensure that:

Interest rates charged for loans or paid on deposits are explained truthfully and clearly
Bank deposits are insured

Personal and confidential information is used and handled appropriately
Depository institutions are managed in a safe and sound manner and in full compliance with applicable federal and state laws and regulations

If U.S. banks and depository institutions fail to adhere to laws and regulations to protect depositors, you can file complaints with federal or state regulators.

The open nature of the Internet makes it easier for you to get information on financial products and services offered by banks and financial institutions from around the country and the world. Thus it is important to remember that if you do business with institutions outside the United States:
Your transactions may not be protected by United States or state laws or regulations, and your deposits may not be insured
Instead, the laws and regulations of the foreign bank's home country may apply
Consequently, it is wise to know a foreign bank's reputation before you decide to open an account or purchase financial products or services. This includes learning where the institution is located or chartered and what kinds of consumer protection, if any, the bank's home country offers.

Most banks provide information on their Web site about where they are located and how to contact them by telephone, in person, or by postal mail. Do not hesitate to contact them if you still have questions about consumer protections after reading on-line materials.

Directo a Mexico program

2007-10-19T10:22:00.000-07:00

Referrence: Directo a Mexico FAQ

Directo a MéxicoSM (Direct to Mexico) is a joint marketing effort between the Federal
Reserve Banks and the Banco de México, the central banks of the United States and
Mexico, respectively. This program is designed to help U.S. financial institutions increase
their share of the rapidly growing U.S. to Mexico remittance market by encouraging and
assisting their customers in using the Federal Reserve Banks’ FedACH International®
Mexico Service.

What is the FedACH International Mexico Service you ask? Well you came to the right place to find the answer. International Personnel Management, Inc. (IPM) can show banks in the United States and in Mexico how to take advatage of the Directo a Mexico program which will help banks and customers alike.

Further information about Directo a Mexico program can be found in an article in the Havana Journal.

"The Federal Reserve and the Central Bank of Mexico are promoting a joint
program called Directo a Mexico, under which participating U.S. banks charge low
fees to send money to Mexico by using the central banks as intermediaries.

People sending money to Mexico pay as much as $15 per transaction—known
as a remittance—to companies such as First Data Corp.’s Western Union Financial
Services Inc. and MoneyGram International Inc. Those companies handle most of
the estimated $20 billion a year sent between the United States and Mexico.
Banks account for only about 5 percent of that amount."

It Costs Money to be Poor

2007-09-26T15:15:00.000-07:00

Predatory businesses such as pawnbrokers, pay-day lenders, rent-to-own stores, and used-car lots prey upon the poor and heavily indebted. There is a better way.

From Spero News
By John S. Rausch

A row of identical signs arranged like landing lights at an airport repeat the appealing offer: “Borrow $200, Repay $203.” This modern spider-to-fly invitation displayed in front of the office of payday lenders appeals to hard strapped workers who just need a boost till payday. What’s three bucks? Technically, since the loan spans only 14 days, three bucks in this case represents 39 percent interest (APR). After this introductory offer, the second $200 loan will demand a $230 repayment–or 390 percent APR!

Payday lenders, together with pawnshops, check-cashers, tax refund lenders, rent-to-own stores and “buy here/pay here” used car lots represent the fringe economy. The term “fringe economy” refers to those businesses that engage in financially predatory relationships with low-income or heavily indebted consumers by charging excessive interest rates or exorbitant fees and prices for goods and services. Other parts of the fringe economy include credit card companies charging sky-high late payments or over-the-credit-limit penalties, cell phone providers pushing excessive prepaid plans and subprime mortgage lenders hiding the real cost of the mortgage.

...

Around the world the poor have fought the money lenders through collective action with institutions like the Grameen Bank and credit unions. These are structures people of faith can explore as more middle class families slide into the ranks of the working poor. Universal health care would save countless families from bankruptcy, while a standard living wage would shrink the pool of the financially desperate. Add to this stricter and enforced usury laws and you create rungs on the ladder for moving up.
The vision: replace the spider-to-fly economy with one permitting a-place-at-the-table for everyone.

Click here to read the whole story.

Calling Cards get Static from Immigrants

2007-09-24T16:50:00.000-07:00

While reading the story below about poor performance by telephone calling card companies, realize that IPM cards can be used as cash loadable phone cards. We can offer comprehensive cards and attract dissatisfied calling card customers.

From the Las Vegas SUN

By Timothy Pratt

For Adolfo Galvez, keeping in touch with his wife and 3-year-old daughter back home in Guatemala has meant learning a thing or two.

You change telephone calling cards every few months, because some cards lose minutes after being on the market for a while.

If you dial your wife's cell phone, you'll get fewer minutes than if you call her on a land line.
Then there are some things you just accept - fewer minutes than the calling card promises, dropped lines resulting in a loss of minutes.

If you complain? "There's no one who will listen," Galvez said.

The 30-year-old stood Thursday afternoon outside the Phone Card Super Center, a busy store near Bonanza Road and Eastern Avenue plastered with fiesta-colored posters offering dozens of $5 cards that allow immigrants and others to call foreign countries.

After four years in the United States, his experience with the cards has mirrored the results of a study released this week by the Hispanic Institute, a Washington nonprofit organization.

The study said the calling card industry is ripping off Hispanics and other immigrants, offering fewer minutes than advertised and hitting millions of immigrants , many of whom don't complain, with hidden charges.

Read the rest by clicking here.

IPM Starts Remittance Radio Webcast

2007-09-20T13:24:00.000-07:00

International Personnel Management, Inc. (IPM) has begun a 30 minute weekly webcast about the latest in international remittance and stored value technology.

The live broadcast will be every Sunday afternoon at 3pm Pacific Time; 6pm Eastern.

Anyone may call in to the show by calling +1(724)444-7444 and when prompted the the Talkcast ID is 52760.

If you miss the weekly live webcast you can listen to past episodes anytime by coming here to the IPM Blog at http://internationalpm.blogspot.com/ or going directly to the Remittance Radio page on Talkshoe.com.

Listen in to hear the latest capabilities and methodologies in the rapidly growing industries of stored value and remittance.

Boycott protests Western Union fees

2007-09-18T13:12:00.000-07:00

By David Milstead,
Rocky Mountain News
September 14, 2007

Western Union has spent much of 2007 worrying that some of its customers have stopped sending money for fear of deportation.

Now, an immigration-advocacy group is urging the transmitter's customers to stay away for a different reason: The company's prices are so high, the group says, they're exploitative.
The Transnational Institute for Grassroots Research and Action, an Oakland, Calif.-based group, is launching a boycott. The group says Western Union's fees are too high and it doesn't reinvest enough in the communities it serves.

The boycott announcement comes just as Douglas County- based Western Union announced a new, five-year, $50 million charitable-giving program called "Our World, Our Family."

The program includes scholarships for children in two-country families and immigration advocacy. It follows the company's earlier five-year, $40 million program of giving.

"We believe our level of giving is comparable with others in the industry," said spokesman Daniel Diaz. "We strongly believe our model of contributing to communities is working."

Francis Calpotura, founder of the boycott group, argues that the charitable giving is small in relation to the company's size, particularly when its fees "come from families without a lot to begin with."

Western Union's pricing has been a sore point before. The company faced a number of lawsuits in the 1990s that alleged consumers were misled by the company's undisclosed profits on foreign currency exchange. They were settled in December 2000, and the establishment of the Western Union Foundation was part of the deal.

There's no question the company's prices are higher than its competitors', as the company positions itself as having an unparalleled branch network: 300,000 agents worldwide, or as many as the next eight largest money transmitters combined.

Competition on certain transmitting "corridors," particularly to Mexico, has been intense in the past several years, and Western Union reduced prices to narrow the distance between it and other companies. Still, said Gwenn Bezard, research director at consulting firm The Aite Group, Western Union's prices remain about 10 percent to 15 percent above closest competitor MoneyGram.

"To an extent, you can argue it's too expensive," Bezard said. "But there aren't too many good alternatives."

Migrant Cash is World Economic Giant

2007-08-31T11:34:00.000-07:00

"Immigration, Inc. - one of the biggest businesses on the planet."

From the Associated Press.
By WILLIAM J. KOLE
Associated Press Writer

TIRANA, Albania (AP) -- Josif Poro pats his new sofa, points with pride to his carpets and runs a wrinkled hand over a gleaming white refrigerator. He and his wife barely scrape by on their $220 monthly pension. They'd have to do without many of the items in their cramped apartment if their son, a factory worker in Greece, didn't faithfully send home part of his earnings.

"We call him our golden boy," said Poro, 83, a retired textile mill worker.
Around the world, millions of immigrants are sending billions of dollars back home.
One sweaty wad of bills or $200 Western Union moneygram at a time, they form what could be called Immigration, Inc. - one of the biggest businesses on the planet.

Experts tracking the phenomenon told The Associated Press they have gotten a much clearer picture since the 9/11 attacks, when authorities trying to cut the flow of cash to jihadists began taking a harder look at how immigrants move their money around.

Click here to read the rest.

Remittances, Free Trade and Cross-Border Banking

2007-08-31T10:39:00.000-07:00

From AOL Money and Finance via PR Newswire.

DALLAS, Aug. 20 /PRNewswire/ -- Remittances to Mexico, free trade and cross-border banking are the focus of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas' latest issue of Southwest Economy. Find the July/August issue online at http://www.dallasfed.org . Lower money-transfer costs and better measurement techniques likely explain the post-2000 growth in remittances from the United States to Mexico, according to Dallas Fed assistant economists Jesus Canas and Roberto Coronado and senior economist and policy adviser Pia Orrenius.

In "Explaining the Increase in Remittances to Mexico," the authors assert that the growth in the Mexican migrant population and their income alone can't account for the increase in remittances.

"Real remittances grew 170 percent from 2000 to 2005, but in the U.S., the Mexican-born population grew only 20 percent," they write.

Instead, they find that more migrants are turning to formal channels to send remittances due to reduced fees and that the Banco de Mexico has modernized procedures for collecting and recording remittance data.

"Spurred by declining costs for both senders and receivers, migrants increasingly have been transmitting remittances through formal channels rather than informal channels, such as carrying cash back home," according to the authors.

Many Americans get only the protectionist viewpoint on free trade, says Blake Hastings in this issue's "On the Record" conversation. "They rarely hear how protectionism distorts the economy, leads to higher prices, breeds mediocrity in service and product quality, and reduces variety," says Hastings, vice president in charge of the Dallas Fed's San Antonio Branch and former executive director of the Free Trade Alliance in San Antonio.

Hastings points out that South Texas cities, including San Antonio and McAllen, are reaching out to China, Brazil, Canada and Europe for trade opportunities. "All these communities are learning that you can't just wait for trade to come to you," he says.

In "Banking Industry Evolution Along the Texas-Mexico Border," economic analyst Joaquin Lopez and senior economist and policy adviser Keith Phillips review presentations from a recent Dallas Fed conference, "Cross-Border Banking." They report that as opportunities for banking increase along the border, the divide between U.S. and Mexican financial systems will continue to fade.

Speakers at the conference included Dallas Fed international financial analyst Edward Skelton, who said that explosive growth in the securitization and mortgage market in Mexico will boost the nation's economy by encouraging higher-quality housing, increased savings and greater wealth creation. SOURCE Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas

Go Green with Your Green

2007-08-31T09:58:00.000-07:00

From the Payroll News Wire and the American Payroll Association.

Click here to watch video or listen to audio in several formats.

"Don't have a bank account? Ask your employer to pay you with a paycard." Getting paid electronically is not only quicker and more convienient, it can also help save the environment.

Every year, more than 146 million workers in America receive a paycheck. That's more than 3.5 billion paychecks per year. For many employees, a trip to the bank on payday is a favored tradition. But that innocent trip to cash your check costs more than just wasted time. In fact, the way you're paid could be damaging the environment.

Most American companies offer a number of free and easy ways to make how you're paid more environmentally friendly. The American Payroll Association offers these tips to "go green with your green."

Direct deposit – Only 71% of workers in America take advantage of this "green" payment method. When you sign up to receive your paycheck electronically via direct deposit, your pay goes straight into your bank account. No waiting in line at the bank drive-thru, idling your car and releasing dangerous ozone-depleting emissions. Plus, your money is always there on payday, even when you're on vacation.

Paycard – Don't have a bank account? Ask your employer to pay you with a paycard. You'll get the same conveniences and "green" benefits as with direct deposit. Your pay will be deposited into an account that's accessed by a pin protected card, similar to an ATM card. You can use the card to make purchases, get cash back at retailers and withdraw money from an ATM. Plus, no more paper as you can keep track of your pay online.

IRS e-file - This IRS program provides a way for many workers to file their income tax using a paper-free method. In fact, 70% of workers can have their taxes prepared and filed completely free using e-file! Use this "green" method to file your tax return and you will get your tax refund weeks faster. Additionally, you can choose to get your refund sent directly into your bank account via direct deposit, saving paper, stamps and delivery costs.

Direct deposit, paycards and IRS e-file are all easy, safe, secure and environmentally friendly. For more information on how you too can go "green" with your green, visit www.nationalpayrollweek.com.

Prepaid Cards: The State of the Industry

2007-07-24T10:15:00.000-07:00

Hat Tip: Bobsguide.com

Boston, MA - 23 July 2007

Aite Group expects the value of branded and private label prepaid card transactions to amount to US$178 billion by 2010, up from US$113 billion in 2007.

A new Impact Report from Aite Group sizes and forecasts the evolution of the prepaid card industry in the United States. It examines the key trends impacting each major component of the industry value chain.Among key findings, the report reveals that despite rapid industry growth, gaining scale in branded prepaid card processing remains a major challenge for processors and issuers. The report also indicates that the introduction of reload services for branded and private label prepaid cards, the drive to offer private label prepaid card products to small merchants, and the deep integration of branded and private label prepaid cards into various industries' business processes are today's three major trends reshaping the industry.
"In the coming few years, the concept of prepaid will grow increasingly irrelevant as it becomes ever-more successful," predicts Gwenn Bézard, research director at Aite Group and author of the report. "Over time, the subtle distinctions between the various card products, such as debit versus prepaid versus credit, and branded versus private label, will erode as products grow in diversity and complexity and mesh together. By the middle of the next decade, the prepaid card industry will have ceased to exist as a recognizable entity."

Anti-laundering compliance costs mount

2007-07-09T09:08:00.000-07:00

Hat Tip: Washington Post

By MADLEN READ
The Associated Press

NEW YORK -- Complying with anti-money laundering laws has been much more expensive than banks anticipated, and some still aren't meeting all requirements, a new survey says.
Banks around the world saw compliance costs jump an average of 58 percent over the past three years _ more than in the previous three years, and higher than the 43 percent increase banks predicted in 2004, said a survey commissioned by Swiss cooperative KPMG International.

Among the six regions surveyed, North American banks saw the highest percentage cost increase, with costs rising 71 percent over the last three years. The Middle East and Africa region was close behind with a rise of 70 percent. Banks' compliance costs rose 58 percent in Europe; 37 percent in Asia; 59 percent in Central and South America; and 60 percent in Russia.
Most of the money went toward buying technological systems and hiring experienced personnel to monitor transactions, said the KPMG report, which did not measure the dollar value of the costs.

"A lot of institutions were not automated to the degree regulators were expecting them to be," said Teresa Pesce, U.S. partner at KPMG's forensic practice.

North America respondents said they predict a cost increase of 28 percent in the next three years. Globally, costs are expected to increase 34 percent in the next three-year period.
Many governments require that banks take steps to prevent money laundering. Money laundering involves making certain financial transactions to hide the source, nature or destination of illegal funds. The United States has the Bank Secrecy Act, which was passed in 1970 and amended by the USA Patriot Act of Oct. 26, 2001. It has since been used increasingly to stop the flow of financing to terrorist organizations.

According to KPMG's survey, 93 percent of North American respondents said they had a formal system in place, meaning 7 percent of banks were not in compliance with the Act's testing requirements.

Noncompliance can be costly.
Last year, Fort Lauderdale-based BankAtlantic agreed to forfeit $10 million to the U.S. government to avoid criminal charges that it permitted millions of dollars in suspected drug money to be laundered through its accounts.

And in 2005, Riggs Bank, now owned by Pittsburgh-based PNC Financial Services Group Inc., agreed to pay a $16 million fine and pleaded guilty to a felony charge of failing to report suspicious transactions involving foreigners including former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet and members of his family.

Despite the possible ramifications, just 63 percent of the survey's North American respondents said anti-money laundering issues were a high priority for senior management.

Independent research agency RS Consulting surveyed 224 of the world's 1,000 largest banks, in 55 countries, through telephone interviews over a six-week period.

Ninety-five percent of North American banking executives surveyed said the number of suspicious activity reports had increased, and 63 percent of those same executives said the number had increased "substantially."

"The better your systems are, the better your monitoring is, the more you'll see _ that's going to drive up the number to some extent," Pesce said.

America's Great Divide

2007-07-03T09:12:00.000-07:00

Hat Tip: Bank Technology News

About 73 million people in the U.S. are unbanked or underbanked, a marketplace that is as diverse as it is unknown-often new to the U.S., frequently entrepreneurial and all lacking credit histories. Banks will find a bevy of new risk tools to help reach out to this market of emerging creditors

By Michael Sisk

The subprime mortgage troubles have grabbed a lot of headlines this year as delinquencies and foreclosures mount and lenders scramble to tighten underwriting standards and head off onerous new rules from a populist-minded Washington. But this story has masked another lending phenomenon gathering momentum: lending to unbanked or lightly banked consumers, whom some are calling "emerging credit."

Make no mistake, there is a significant difference between subprime and unbanked. The former have established and blemished credit histories that can be viewed through the three major credit repositories, while unbanked can't be easily tracked because they have never had a credit card, car loan, mortgage or other financial product that would leave a credit trail. However, these two groups do have two major commonalities: risk profiles that fall outside the norm and must be carefully studied before extending credit; each group also represents a deep pool of potential customers.

Reaching the unbanked is one of those perennial dilemmas for banks, but several new technology tools recently have been unveiled that show great promise in helping to bridge this gap. And it is a gap worth bridging. The Center for Financial Services Innovation estimates 73 million people in the U.S. are either unbanked or underbanked. When one considers that that figure is 56 percent of the total banked population of 130 million, it becomes pretty clear how much business is up for grabs.

Click here to read the rest.

Payroll card is for people without bank accounts

2007-07-02T09:26:00.000-07:00

Hat Tip: Gannett News Service

For 71 percent of America's workers, payday means an automatic direct deposit into a bank account.

But for as many as 28 million people in the United States who don't have a bank account, payday means cash or a paper check.

Those paper checks aren't convenient for so-called "unbanked" people, who end up paying exorbitant fees to cash a check or pay bills. And it's not great for employers, either, who pay $1 to $2 per paper paycheck and up to $9 to replace one if it's lost. An increasing number of employers are now finding a solution in a new type of plastic: the payroll card, a pre-paid card that employees can use just like a regular ATM/debit card, and employers can reload with the same ease as direct deposit into the bank.

"Better, faster, safer, more secure," is how William Dunn of the American Payroll Association describes the payroll card option. The association estimates 4 million paychecks are lost or stolen annually.

"The paycard helps employers increase the number of electronic payments they make to employees," Dunn says. "You don't have to deal with check fraud; if they lose a paycard, it's easier to replace; and it's really good for the employee as well."

Similar to ATM cards, people using the payroll cards to withdraw money are subject to fees at ATM machines not in their network. The money is debited directly from their card accounts.
Employees benefit because they no longer have to pay $5 or $6 fees to cash their paychecks, says Tom Crowder, Discover's general manager of prepaid products. Employers benefit because they save money by depositing money directly into the card account instead of cutting a check every week. (It can cost as little as 20 cents to issue a payment through a card, studies from VISA have shown.)

Discover also benefits by having more branded cards in the hands of more consumers, says David Robertson, publisher of the Nilson Report, a newsletter on the payment cards industry.
"If you're a card company, you're looking to get as many pieces of plastic out there with your name on it" as possible, Robertson said. "There is an opportunity to put a payment card into the hands of America's poorer population. They are cash-oriented spenders and this is a way to maybe make them card-oriented."

Card issuers can also gather data on cardholders over time, learning more about their spending patterns and habits, Robertson said. That allows card issuers to eventually use that information to develop and market new products in the future.

Employers loaded about $6.3 billion on about 1.5 million payroll cards in 2005, according to the Mercator Advisory Group, a Waltham, Mass.-based payments industry research firm. Those numbers are expected to increase to 3.2 million cards and $12.1 billion in payments by the end of 2007, and could reach 4.6 million cards with $17.4 billion in payroll deposits by the end of 2009.

It's not only the unbanked population that uses the cards, says Tim Sloane, who directs the Mercator Group's debit and prepaid advisory practice.

Employers also like to use payroll cards when an employee is part-time or works on an as-needed basis, if the employee moves around a lot, or if payments are irregular, such as with contractors or salesmen who earn variable commissions, Sloane said.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. issued its first VISA-branded payroll debit cards in the late 1980s, said Ted Grunberg, the New York bank's product manager for prepaid products.
But only in the last three years have the cards really taken off, Grunberg said. He attributes that to consumers' increasing comfort with plastic. Now more than 1,000 employers — from large corporations to mom-and-pop shops — use Chase's VISA-brand payroll cards, Grunberg said.

"People are getting used to this," he says. "Gift cards have just flown through the ceiling."

Automation is Washing Money Orders Away

2007-04-04T08:57:00.000-07:00

Source: John Adams of Bank Technology News

"Prepaid cards are the new vehicle of choice among the unbanked who have long endured high money order fees. Payments firms better take note."

The amount of walk in payments for bills is decreasing in the face of more availability of stored value debit cards to the unbanked and underbanked. As people are able to transfer money to and from their cards at much less cost than the price of a money order and with more convenience the market movement is obvious.

Companies affiliated with International Personnel Management, Inc. (IPM) will maximize their entry into one of the fastest growing markets in the world.

Click here to read more.

IPM partnered with UniCache

2007-02-09T20:14:00.000-08:00

International Personnel Management, Inc. is partnered with UniCache, Inc. to bring to the market the best remittance and st0red value card based transaction technology to the international market.

Latin America is Ready for EMV Cards

2007-01-14T09:37:00.000-08:00

From gtnews.com.

An excellent entry point to the Card transaction market with partnership from IPM.

Smart cards that comply with global payment standards are set to take the Latin American market by storm now that previous barriers to the adoption of EMV cards - high cost, the small card user base and lack of guidelines in the region - have been overcome.

The use of EMV cards (smartcards that comply with the global standard for payment systems) is exploding in some Latin American applications, such as prepaid wireless and closed-loop stored value cards. But the conversion from magnetic-stripe cards to EMV cards in the region's banking sector, which was loudly predicted five years ago, has not yet happened. InfoAmericas believes the region will see watershed change, with rapid EMV card adoption over the next few years.

Two important obstacles that stood in the way of this transition are now being overcome. The first was the lack of uniform acceptance guidelines in a region dominated by international banks. Until recently, there were no well-established specifications that could allow smooth adoption of the EMV standard across terminal platforms that vary from country to country. The second obstacle was the enormous cost of transitioning to EMV technology given the relatively small card base and its concentration in the affluent market. The benefits to financial institutions, retailers and cardholders were not seen as sufficient to justify the switch, especially considering that EMV cards are also more expensive to produce than magnetic-stripe cards. The market was stuck in a gridlock situation where no EMV terminals were being installed because there weren't enough EMV cards in circulation, and banks were not issuing EMV cards because there weren't enough terminals.

Debit and Credit Cards Reach Critical Mass

Now, however, sustained growth in the debit and credit card market has finally established the critical mass necessary to drive EMV implementation. Twenty-five million new credit cards have been issued since 2001, while the number of debit cards in circulation expanded by more than 30 per cent. This has created the economies of scale needed to support implementation of a variety of EMV card solutions and products.

Previously, the most compelling arguments for adopting EMV cards did not apply to the Latin American market. The card base was too small for issuers and retailers to benefit from the enhanced customer profiling capabilities that EMV cards offer. Fraud was also seen as insufficient justification, since until 2003 the incidence of card fraud in the region was among the lowest in the world.

Other less prominent factors also contributed to the reluctance to adopt EMVs. Many Latin American banks were in the midst of consolidation or acquisition, which was poor timing for any new technology. Banks were focused on expanding their market presence through expanded ATM networks and promotion of financial services. Retail loyalty programs were also limited, as a result of shaky economic recoveries and a generally unsophisticated and untested consumer market.

Fraud Reduction is the Leading EMV Driver

The Latin American card market has grown rapidly over the past few years as it shifted focus towards new lower socio-economic segments and multiple card possession. The expanding card base fostered an increase in fraud, which in turn strengthened the economic case for EMV card adoption. Although the fraud-loss rate in Latin America remains below 0.4 per cent, it is nearly five times higher than in the US market, and growing an alarming 12 per cent a year.

A recent InfoAmericas study revealed that only about half of the banks surveyed believed that the level of card fraud in their portfolios had already reached unacceptable levels. On the other hand, 73 per cent stated that, within the next three years, fraud levels will reach a point where they cannot be offset by portfolio growth, leading to the adoption of EMV cards. Pilot tests conducted by Visa indicate that counterfeiting can be cut by 70 per cent and fraudulent use of lost and stolen cards could be chopped by 90 per cent with EMV cards. Visa and MasterCard are also in the process of changing the rules that allocate responsibility for fraudulent charges, and they will apply these new rules to Latin America beginning in January 2006. After that, the cost of any fraudulent transaction that could have been prevented with EMV technology will be shifted from the card issuers to banks not using EMV.

The Largest Untapped Stored Value Card Market in the World

2007-01-12T20:26:00.000-08:00

When reading this article from the Shanghai Star about the cash based economy of China and the desire or in fact the "imperative" of a card based economy, one realizes just how big an opportunity exists for stored value card provider companies.

Even though this article was written in 2003, one can realize that the extremely large and growing Chinese market is far from having a society where stored value and credit cards are ubiquitous.

At International Personnel Management, LLC (IPM) we stand ready to facilitate the entry into the Chinese economy for secure card based transactions.

Ukraine One of the Biggest Money Transfer Countries

2007-01-11T08:18:00.000-08:00

Ukrainian workers in Europe transfer many Euros back home to their relatives and the amount is increasing. News out of Ukraine is that the tendency of Ukrainian workers in Europe to use electronic money transfers will increase during 2007.

The entry of large money transfer companies will increase competition in the money transfer business and will increase awareness of new money transfer solutions through abundant advertising.

As of now the primary means of money transfer is through existing banking methods which is the traditional wiring of money from one bank branch to another. So far there is not much use of stored value cards or card-to-card transfers. International Personnel Management, LLC (IPM) is positioned to change that.

Stored Value Remittance Card Systems

2007-01-10T13:19:00.000-08:00

Reference the PR Newswire and the MiCash, Inc. website.

The MiCash Card is not by any means the only card system that performs stored value, purchase and remittance functions. The MiCash Card is an example of the types of capabilities that we at IPM are able to implement worldwide.

Through a partnership of existing providers and technologies a robust remittance, merchant and customer system can be beneficial to many populations in areas around the world. International Personnel Management LLC has the expertise to bring together the proper technologies with the decision makers and civil society to implement workable systems.

A Better Way to Wire Cash Home

2007-01-09T10:39:00.000-08:00

Reference: Hispanic Business.com

"Atsumasa Tochisako's $2 million, 60-employee microfinance and remittance processing upstart, Washington [D.C.]-based Microfinance International (MFIC), wants to shake up the $268 billion worldwide remittance industry, traditionally dominated by Western Union (WU)."

"With more than 30 million potential customers and 20,000-plus agent locations, MFIC will see its remittance processing capability expand from its current reach of 10 countries in Latin America to 85 countries, with additional locations in Asia, Eastern Europe, and Northern Africa."

"Tochisako, a 53-year-old former Japanese banker, says he doesn't want to create the next Western Union. He's more interested in proving to the world that a financial services company can benefit poor people and make money by adapting traditional microfinance models to serve immigrant populations in the U.S. and underserved people in the developing world, a goal he set for himself after witnessing abject poverty in Mexico while first working there in 1979."

International Personnel Management, LLC (IPM) is positioned to link companies like Microfinance International with public authorities and civil societies to facilitate economic growth and increased personnal lifestyles in developing countries.

Remittance from Japan to Peru

2007-01-09T06:56:00.000-08:00

There is a large population of Peruvians of Japanese decent (Nikkei people) who live in Japan. The number of Nikkei people in Japan has been growing since the late 1980's. Japanese banks have up to now not been in the business of facilitating the transfer of money from the Peruvian workers back to Peru.

An organization called Convenio Kyodai was formed to help Peruvians working in Japan to overcome language and cultural barriers. An informative narrative on a Peruvian experience in Japan can be found here.

There are growing numbers of Dekasegi entrepreneurs who return to Peru from Japan to start new businesses. Japan has an increasing linkage to Latin American countries especially Brazil, Peru and to a lesser extent Argentina.

There are many opportunities to create robust remittance networks beyond the United States and Latin America. We at IPM are uniquely positioned to facilitate remittance transactions worldwide because of our established long term relationships.

International Remittance Market Sparking Interest from Big Banks

2007-01-08T13:25:00.000-08:00

The international remittance market has become so lucrative and beneficial that large international banks are taking an interest in "taking back" a market that has gone to money transfer companies.

Big banks (especially those based in the United States) faces some challenges in the international remittance market because of the many post-911 restrictions imposed upon them by the U.S. government. Despite these challenges the banking industry is exploring opportunities because the remittance market is expected to "grow 10.1% through 2008."

As can be seen in this article on CNN Money.com, the barriers both real and perceived faced by immigrants to use money transfer technology are being broken down by younger generations acceptance of being "plugged into tech."

We at IPM are poised to guide banks, money transfer companies, merchants and end users through this dynamic time in the international remittance market.

Credit Unions Have Robust Remittance Capability

2007-01-07T00:50:00.000-08:00

As seen on a CUNA press release.

CUNA (Credit Union National Association) & Affiliates [in May 2003] entered into an agreement with the World Council of Credit Unions, Inc. (WOCCU) and Travelex to make international money remittance services more broadly available to credit unions in the United States.

The new international money remittance program will operate under the umbrella name “IRnet” which has been licensed by WOCCU to CUNA & Affiliates for use in the United States. The agreement gives U.S. credit unions the option of using Travelex’s Worldwide Money Remittance system or the Vigo Remittance service, the service currently used by WOCCU.

“This agreement means U.S. credit unions can provide international money remittances to their members and potential members efficiently and economically to the consumer,” says CUNA President and CEO Daniel A Mica. “The IRnet name is well-established, so licensing it from WOCCU gives the program instant name recognition and credibility in the marketplace.”

Credit Unions increased their remittance capability in 2003 and continue to expand. More and more systems facilitating international remittance transaction mean that IPM and our business partners will continue to bring state of the art solutions to our customers.

Recipients' Interest in Joining the Banking System

2007-01-04T13:09:00.000-08:00

From the study conducted by Visa International found on the Payments News website there are listed benefits for remittance recipients to join the banking system. From the article (Thanks to Bankwatch for the source):

"Key findings highlight the recipients' interest in joining the banking system.

Approximately 50 percent of the remittance volume to the region is distributed through financial institutions, but only 11 percent is received in bank accounts; the remainder is distributed in cash. This shows that despite the participation of financial institutions in the process, recipients are not yet receiving the benefits provided by banking.
56 percent of interviewees expressed an interest in establishing some type of formal relationship within the financial system. Similarly, 70 percent showed a favorable attitude toward banks.
Remittances are not the only source of family income. Nearly half of the beneficiaries are employed part-time or full-time, and for 52 percent of them remittances represent supplemental income. Only one of eight beneficiaries considers remittances the only source of income.
15 percent of beneficiaries save or invest the money they receive because remittances increase their income by 50 percent.
Most frequent uses include purchasing goods, developing a business, savings in foreign or local currency, paying debt, and certain luxuries such as traveling.
The level of solvency, spending potential, savings and investment are higher among remittance recipients than among people of similar socioeconomic levels who do not receive remittances. Nearly half are economically active people.
24 percent of senders interviewed have been living abroad for 10 to 15 years and continue to send remittances periodically, showing the consistency of this business in the long term."

We at IPM are uniquely positioned to benefit provider companies, civil authorities and end users.

Banking Potential of Remittance Recipients

2007-01-03T11:03:00.000-08:00

As shown in an article by Payments News:

"Visa International, Latin America and Caribbean Region, has conducted a study that "revealed the banking potential of remittance recipients, as well as their interest in establishing more productive relationships with financial institutions. The remittance market reached US$52 billion in 2005, marking a 15 percent increase over the previous year."

This idea goes against the conventional wisdom that most remittance participants don't trust banking institutions and will remain un-banked. This is of great interest to us here at IPM and to banking institutions.

The statistics keep showing a revolutionary change is occurring in cultural attitudes about banking and the transaction of money.

Hat Tip: Bank Watch

World Bank Estimates 2006 Remittances to Reach $199 Billion

2006-12-24T00:12:00.000-08:00

The World Bank's Development Prospects Group, Migration and Remittances Team put together an interesting brief that is useful to us on the IPM team and everyone involved in the world remittance market.

An interesting observation from the brief is the following quote:

"Recorded remittances sent home by migrants from developing countries are expected to reach $199 billion in 2006, up from $188 billion in 2005, and more than double the level in 2001."

The gigantic sums involved in world remittances are of interest to developing countries who, with the correct systems in place, can harness the power of remittance transactions to fund development at all levels of the economy and empower the "Base of the Pyramid" (BOP) to self fund and rise into a viable and productive class bringing prosperity to the entire country.

Remittances - United States to Latin America

2006-12-21T12:42:00.000-08:00

According to a study conducted in October 2006 by Monetary Investment Fund/Fondo Multilateral de Inversiones (MIF/FOMIN) reveals some interesting dynamics of the U.S. to Latin America remittance market.

[The MIF/FOMIN] study indicates that 12.6 million Latin American immigrants living in the United States will send about $45 billion to their families in 2006.

The percentage of immigrants sending money on a regular basis to their relatives has increased from 61 percent in 2004 to 73 percent in 2006.
The average amount of each remittance sent from the U.S. has increased from $240 in2004 to $300 in 2006.
The percentage of immigrants that use a bank or credit union to send remittances has increased from 8 percent in 2004 to 19 percent in 2006.

The size of this market cannot be ignored.

The large numbers of transactions and funds indicated in this survey allow participating firms to vastly increase the standard of living in recipient countries by leveraging existing trends without having to further access funds from overburdened governmental and non-governmental (NGO) organizations.

IPM is positioned to enable companies to participate and benefit from this market while benefiting remittance senders and receivers.

The Growing Remittance Market

2006-12-19T16:32:00.000-08:00

The remittance market is growing around the world. In the United States, the remittance market is usually associated with the southwestern border states with Mexico.

As seen in the article published by the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, four of the top ten U.S. states where remittances originate are in the southeastern United States.

Banks are interested in building infrastructure and knowhow but there are still many gaps which IPM (International Personnel Management, LLC) is here to fill.

International Personnel Management and Remittance

2006-12-18T16:27:00.000-08:00

International Personnel Management, LLC (IPM) is here to implement remittance transactions and stored value card transactions in Latin America, the Caribbean (LAC) and around the world.

Contact IPM for the expertise, contacts and solutions to take your concept to reality.

What is SWIFT?

2006-12-16T11:05:00.000-08:00

SWIFT stands for "Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication."

In relation to international transactions and remittances, SWIFT is an electronic messaging network of banks (majority), depositories, securities broker-dealers and non-bank corporations. SWIFT was formed as a banking transactional messaging network but has grown and is growing into a network that can be used in addition to other systems for transfers relating to the international remittance market.

To know what SWIFT is and and how it works it is beneficial to reference an overall description of SWIFT at the 9to5andOtherwise.com site.

Click part 1 and part 2.

Base of the Pyramid

2006-12-15T10:44:00.000-08:00

This is exactly why we at International Personnel Management, LLC are here. IPM is here to serve the Bottom of the Pyramid (BOP) for the betterment of all.

The following is an excerpt from the Multilateral Investment Fund site:

The Base of the Pyramid

The consumer market at the base of the pyramid (BOP) – approximately 350 million people in Latin America and the Caribbean region – represents an attractive yet underserved population for which private companies could develop new products and services. As developed economies constitute a continually smaller share of the global economy and become even more saturated, the related changes in worldwide consumption habits will represent significant opportunities for strategic private companies.

This is not about providing the same, existing products and services that have been developed for the top of the economic pyramid and simply marketed to the poor, but rather a new business approach that seeks to develop new products or services adapted to the needs of the BOP at an affordable price.

Migration Phenomenon Beyond the United States

2006-12-14T22:03:00.000-08:00

There are immigration trends throughout the Americas beyond the immigration of Mexicans to the United States.

According to a study* conducted by the Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF), "there are now significant communities of Bolivian migrants in Argentina, Nicaraguan migrants in Costa Rica, Guatemalans in Mexico, Peruvians in Chile, and Haitians in the Dominican Republic."

The MIF was formed to fund projects that stimulate the economies of Latin America and the Caribbean. There are numerous transactional opportunities beyond the United States/Mexico market.

*study titled Sending Money Home; Remittances as a Development Tool in Latin America and the Caribbean

The Need for Banking the "Unbankable"

2006-12-14T14:06:00.000-08:00

In our increasingly digital world there are many people who need a credit or debit card of some sort to participate in or do business. Most hotels now will not permit someone to stay as a guest unless they have some sort of bank card for the hotel to scan.

Gone are the days of having a tab at a local merchant. Merchants demand and customers need an instant method for conducting business transactions.

Another use for debit and stored value cards is to permit people to essentially carry a bank account in their wallet. Employers now have the option of direct depositing pay checks directly to the employee's card. Stored value cards now actually have a bank routing number in addition to the account number so that money can be wired to the card.

Money can also be transfered by the cardholder from one card to another card anywhere in the world. One can see the potential for unbanked immigrants in many countries around the world sending money back to their home countries. These card-to-card transactions are much less expensive to the user than using older methods such as wiring money through Western Union.

Welcome to International Personnel Management

2006-12-14T13:08:00.000-08:00

This is a project which has limitless potential.