iRemit to do business in Europe

MANILA, Philippines - I-Remit Inc., the largest Filipino-owned non-bank remittance company, has secured a license to do business in Europe.

 In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, iRemit said it received a copy of a letter from Banca D’ Italia Eurosistema advising the registration of iRemit Europe in the general list of financial intermediaries as a provider of money transfer services under Art. 106 of the legislative decree of Italy’s Banking Law.

“With the said registration, the company will widen its market reach, allowing it to service the remittance needs of more Filipinos living and working in Italy,” iRemit said.

Statistics show that Italy is the second most popular destination-country of overseas Filipino workers in Europe.  Numbering about 200,000, the vast majority of Filipinos work in the domestic service sector while there are also a number employed in the nursing field and skilled and semi-skilled fields.

The company earlier signed a joint venture agreementwith the Elite Exchange Remittance Services S.A. to provide remittance services to Filipino workers in Greece. Statistics from the Philippine Embassy show that there are about 40,000 Filipinos in Greece.

iRemit is currently present in 27 countries across Asia Pacific, North America, Europe and the Middle East, with almost 5,000 payout partners in the Philippines. It opened its newest branch in Canada to meet the growing remittance needs of Filipinos and Chinese. The new outlet, located in West Edmonton Mall, the largest shopping mall in North America and the fifth largest in the world, is iRemit’s fifth outlet in the country.

Filipinos in Canada now comprise the third-largest Asian-Canadian group after the Indian and Chinese communities, growing from 308,000 to 436,000 between 2001 and 2006.

The Chinese remittance business of the company was established under a special agreement with the Bank of China Ltd. (BOC), one of China’s four state-owned commercial banks that provides a comprehensive range of high-quality financial services. BOC has numerous branches in every major continent outside of mainland China.

iRemit offers same-day processing of remittances which beneficiaries in China may withdraw from any of Bank of China’s over 12,000 domestic branches.

With iRemit’s continuing expansion across the globe, company officials stressed the importance of enhancing not only the products being offered by the company but also improving customer service.

Last year, it handled $1.1 billion worth of remittances, up 42 percent from the previous year and exceeding the industry’s 37- percent growth. It expanded its operations in the Pacific region last year, opening new branches in New Zealand, Perth and Liverpool in Australia. 

The company is also securing a license to operate in Macau to further enlarge its customer base.