BBK makes remittance easy for NRIs

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

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

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

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The Ethics of the Bottom of the Pyramid

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?

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Super ATMs Coming to a Location Near You

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

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.

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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

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.