Tag: Financials

SMART Communications and Western Union to Deliver Mobile Remittances in the Philippines

Posted by | Jan 29, 2008 | |

The Western Union Company announced today that it has joined forces with Smart Communications, Inc. (SMART), a leading wireless services provider in the Philippines, to jointly develop and pilot a Mobile Money Transfer service.

The service, which is being developed as part of the GSM Association’s Mobile Money Transfer strategic initiative, aims to make low-principal, high-frequency remittances available to the country’s more than 8 million Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs).(1)

SMART, which ended 2007 with more than 30 million subscribers, already has an established mobile financial service platform linking local bank accounts to mobile handsets, providing significant convenience for banked consumers. At the end of 2007, more than 7 million SMART subscribers were in the Smart Money system, close to 2 million of whom are cardholders. The company has agreements with five Philippine commercial banks and links to over 7,000 ATMs nationwide, more than 100 Smart Wireless Centers and thousands of third-party Smart Money fulfillment partners.

“More than 44 percent of households in the Philippines have a relative or family member working abroad,(2) and the mobile phone plays a tremendous role in keeping families connected,” said Matt Dill, General Manager, Western Union Mobile. “We believe there is a real opportunity to extend the reach of Western Union’s brand and service proposition to a new and more mobile consumer base.”

The number of immigrants globally is about 200 million – approximately 3 percent of the world’s population.(2) According to recent World Bank data, the Philippines is the fourth-largest receiver of remittances in the world and received an estimated $17 billion USD in 2007.

Once the Western Union(R) mobile money transfer pilot has launched, the service will connect operators to Western Union’s existing global money transfer system. Once connected to the Western Union service, operators will be able to use their own “mobile wallet” software to enable person-to-person mobile money transfers over Western Union’s cross-border remittance network. The Mobile Money Transfer service will enable consumers to transfer money to or from mobile wallets and will offer a global network of Western Union Agent locations for cash-to-mobile and mobile-to-cash transactions.

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Deutsche Post studying restructuring

Posted by | Jan 25, 2008 | |

Deutsche Post is considering its options for retail bank Postbank and its loss-making DHL Express unit in the United States but has not reached any decisions, a source close to the supervisory board told Reuters on Friday.

“There are considerations, but no decisions yet,” the person said. A second source familiar with the matter confirmed this.

Deutsche Post is exploring ways to stem losses from DHL in the United States, where economic weakness has stalled its recovery as it tries to take on dominant domestic rivals UPS and FedEx.

The company said this week it would write down around 600 million euros (USD879 million) on the value of the business after previously abandoning a target to break even at DHL in the United States in 2009.

And Deutsche Post’s chief executive, Klaus Zumwinkel, has said the role of Postbank in the group could be considered following the deregulation of the German mail market at the start of 2008. Many banks are interested, Zumwinkel told analysts in November.
His comments have been taken as a signal in the market that the bank would be sold.

The Financial Times Deutschland said on Friday that Postbank would be merged with another bank and not sold, while Post is in talks with FedEx about the U.S. package delivery business.

Teaming up with FedEx in the domestic U.S. business whilst offering FedEx a joint venture in Europe to enable it to deepen its presence could be the “most elegant solution for the massive profitability problems of DHL in the U.S.”, ING analysts wrote.

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Japan PB resumes remittance service to Iran

Posted by | Jan 22, 2008 | |

Japan Post Bank announced here on Tuesday that it will continue remittance service to Iran, despite the gossips heard regarding the suspension of services to Iran.

Dispatching the remittances services will be continued until Aug. 2008, according to the contract between the sides and the bylaw of the Universal Postal Union (UPU) and the guidelines of the Postal Financial Services Group (PFSG) which was coordinated on Aug. 9, 1999.

The reason the bank cited about the formerly news of suspension was the US sanctions against Iranian banks from October 25. Japan Post Bank said that intermediary banks in the chain to its Iran transfers were unable to continue dealing with the three largest state-run Iranian banks, as a result of these sanctions.

This was an unusual move for Japan, which has maintained cordial relations with Iran after the Islamic Revolution in 1979. Though numbers are disputed, a large number of Iranians are reported to live in Japan. The number of remittances to Iran processed by the Post Bank was around 200 annually, with a value of around USD 450,000.

Japan Post Bank will disperse risks and diversify earnings sources, by diversifying means of investments (into trading of derivatives, acquisition and sales of monetary credits, syndicated loans, securitized products, beneficiary rights, and investments in stocks), while controlling interest rates-associated risks appropriately and will strengthen channels of post office networks, by providing its infrastructure and sales support tools, improve the compliance system, help improve quality and enhance training programs.

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SingPost and BNI offer new remittance service to Indonesia at post offices island-wide

Posted by | Jan 22, 2008 | |

Singapore Post Limited (SingPost) and PT Bank Negara Indonesia (Persero) Tbk (BNI) announced that they will offer a new remittance service to Indonesia at 51 designated SingPost branches (post offices).

CASHOME is a fast, convenient, yet secure remittance service that allows the sender to remit money into a recipient’s bank account maintained with BNI in Indonesia. A fast remittance transfer time is in store for customers as funds remitted by the sender through the post office before 3pm will be received by the recipient on the same day.
Funds remitted after 3pm will be received by the recipient on the next business day. The money will be credited directly to the recipient’s bank account maintained by BNI.

Customers can use their NETS card or cash to remit funds to their recipients who can access the funds at BNI’s wide network of over 970 branches and close to 20,000 ATMs across Indonesia. They will also enjoy the convenience of using the CASHOME card for the initial and subsequent transactions. A CASHOME card is an identification card for customers to use to remit money to their recipient, saving them the hassle of filling out forms each time they need to remit money. A one-time registration of the CASHOME card is required only.

As SingPost is committed to safeguarding customers’ personal information and privacy,
customers can enjoy peace of mind in knowing that their funds are in safe hands when they remit money with Singapore’s public postal licensee.

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Lebanese can now pay phone bills at post office

Posted by | Jan 21, 2008 | |

Land-line subscribers who are frustrated with the long queue at OGERO’s cashiers can now pay their phone bills through LibanPost, Telecommunications Minister Marwan Hamadeh said on Thursday.

Hamadeh made the announcement after signing an agreement with LibanPost at the Telecommunications Ministry.

Land-line subscribers can now pay their bills in any LibanPost office at a cost of LL1,000 in postal charges.

LibanPost will also send their mailmen to the homes and offices of land-line subscribers to collect the bills in exchange for a LL1,500 fee.

According to Hamadeh, “The new services confirm that LibanPost is a reliable and trustworthy courier that will serve all the citizens and companies.”

Since OGERO reduced the three-month billing period to one month in August, many subscribers have complained that they spend too much time – often an entire day – standing in line to pay their telephone bill.

There are currently more than 650,000 land-line subscribers in Lebanon.

Hamadeh said that his ministry and OGERO are doing their best to make the lives of subscribers easier.

OGERO recently reduced the cost of international phone calls to $0.40 a minute from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. and $0.20 from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m.

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