iRemit beefs up services to boost transactions

By Karen Flores, abs-cbnNEWS.com
Created 07/17/2009 - 13:50

MANILA - Money transfer firm iRemit Inc. continues to beef up its service offerings to generate more transactions this year as the pace of remittances remains slow amid the economic downturn.

According to iRemit President and Chief Operating Officer Harris Jacildo, the company will provide new services to encourage overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) to make more frequent transactions in their offices.

He said they are hoping that fees collected from these new offerings would make up for the slow growth in remittances as a result of the global crisis.

"Now, it's really more of a volume game. It's about the number of transactions. We should be generating traffic in our offices, and one way is to offer a wide array of attractive products and services," he told reporters at the sidelines of iRemit's annual stockholders' meeting on Friday, not citing figures. The company ended 2008 with 2.4 million transactions from 1.9 million in the previous year.

Jacildo said they are looking to tie up with an electronics firm so OFWs can send appliances to their families and beneficiaries in the Philippines. They are also boosting their partnership with the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. to enable OFWs to pay for their health insurance online.

These are just a few of the creative offerings iRemit has thought of.

In February, iRemit tied up with consumer giant Nestle to allow OFWs to send home a variety of chocolates and other food items. Just recently, the company formed a partnership with Jollibee Foods Corp. for a food remittance delivery [12] service.

The remittance firm has also enhanced its partnership with state-run Pag-ibig fund [13] (Home Development Mutual Fund) and the Social Security System to improve monthly contributions and loan payments from OFWs.

Growth

Jacildo said iRemit is on track with its target to achieve "better" profits this year than last year, adding that the company usually performs better in the second half of the year as OFWs send more money for the holiday season.

"Even in terms of projections, the second half has always been better (than the first half). We expect that profits for the second half will pick up," he said.

iRemit reported a net income of P129.98 million [14] last year, a 15% rise from P113.29 million in 2007. For the first half of 2009, it has set a profit target of P60 million.

As for remittance growth, Jacildo expressed optimism that these will start to recover during the latter part of the year, but not in the same level as 2008.

"The trend in the first half will also follow in the second half. There's going to be growth from last year, but it will just be a small increase," he said.

Money sent home by OFWs reached a record $1.48 billion [15] in May, but the pace of growth is still slow at 3.7% compared to double-digit increases in the previous years.

The latest figure brings the country's total remittance inflows to $6.98 billion for the first 5 months of the year, a 2.8% growth from $6.79 billion reached in the same period in 2008.

Expansion

iRemit is planning to expand its operations in Italy, the country's fourth largest source of remittances after the United States, Saudi Arabia, and Canada. At present, the company said some 200,000 OFWs are based in the European country.

"The Filipino migrants in Italy are generally educated, with most of them having exposure and access to different money transfer services. This poses a challenge, yes, but we are positive that we can exceed customer expectations by offering them innovative, fast, safe, and reliable remittance products and services," Jacildo said, adding that iRemit is still waiting for the release of its license to operate in Italy.

Aside from Italy, Jacildo said iRemit is also planning to establish its presence in Switzerland and Greece either by setting up its own subsidiaries or through partnerships with major remittance operators.

Next week, the iRemit is set to put up an office in Edmonton, the company's fifth branch in Canada.

"Canada is our strongest market. That's why we're opening our fifth branch there. We've been there for almost 8 years," he said.

iRemit is the country's largest non-bank Filipino-owned remittance company, with a growing network of remittance centers in 26 countries across Asia Pacific, North America, Europe, and the Middle East.

as of 07/17/2009 3:54 PM