Ventaja seeks e-money license from BSP

MANILA, Philippines — Ventaja International Corp., the operator of the PayRemit app, is seeking an electronic money issuer (EMI) license from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).

Vincent Grey, founder and chief executive officer of Ventaja, said the company is awaiting the approval of its application for an EMI license, which requires a P100 million paid-up capital to complement its certificate for registration as an operator of a payment system (OPS) and its license as a money service business (MSB) operator.

Grey, who is also president and CEO of PayRemit, said the company is expecting a strong rebound in online shopping and loan transactions by overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) this year amid the recovery of the global economy from the pandemic-induced recession.

After holding back last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic,  Grey said the company is now processing about 500 orders in June compared to only 100 in December last year.

“We held back on our own in 2020 as the government imposed moratorium on collections. So 2020 was primarily keeping the ship afloat. We weren’t growing, but we were still serving as there were still orders coming in,” Grey said.

The BSP is expecting a four percent growth in remittances this year coming from a 0.8 percent drop last year as hundreds of thousands of OFWs were displaced by the impact of the global health pandemic.

“Maybe by next year we should be doing a few thousand transactions a month so that should put us to over 20,000 for the year. And then we will ramp up further in 2023 that is when we expect a more rapid growth,” Grey said.

PayRemit is an app for migrant workers who want to shop for their families and pay institutions in their home countries. The app processes and validates all transactions, while the agents and remittance centers connected to Ventaja International Corp. handle all cash payments.

In 2019, OFWs in the Middle East, Europe, and Asia started enjoying the same benefits as credit cards when shopping on the PayRemit app as they were allowed to pay in installment.

In terms of fulfillment, PayRemit tapped local suppliers such as Abenson, Royal Star Appliances and K Servico.

It also made it easy for OFWs to buy using concierge services, wherein customers can message PayRemit on Facebook and someone would help them throughout the entire process.

The PayRemit app is a well-stocked, curated marketplace that can deliver items to OFWs across Luzon and select areas in Visayas and Mindanao.

“We had to respond to OFWs’ needs. They wanted an online platform for appliances and gadgets. So we built one,” Grey said.

As early as 2017, PayRemit’s payment gateway made it possible for migrant workers to shop online and pay with remittance, initially with partner merchants including Goldilocks and Cebu Pacific.  It expanded its services and piloted a shopping site on Facebook for appliances and gadgets in 2018.