Metrobank expands int’l operations, eyes $4.2B in OFW remittances this yr

The country’s largest bank network Metropolitan Bank and Trust Co. (Metrobank) is forecasting foreign currency inflows of $4.2 billion this year, mostly remittances from overseas Filipinos.

Last year, it registered remittances or fund transfers worth $3.5 billion, making it the leading universal bank in the remittance business.

Bank officials said the anticipated growth would be driven by new alliances with foreign banks and fund transfer agencies. Recently, Metrobank forged an alliance with Travelex, a London-based commercial foreign exchange service provider touted as the third largest worldwide.

Travelex boasts of 5,000 branches or locations in 50 countries with another 5,000 planned in the next few years. In 2001, it acquired Thomas Cook Global and Financial Services.

Metrobank senior executive vice president Angelito M. Villanueva said growth could even accelerate in the following years as the bank has started to tap the remittance business to service other nationalities. In fact, the bank’s Taipei branch services Indonesian nationals working in Taiwan since 2002.

Villanueva added that they are forging new relationships with banks in Vietnam and Thailand while expanding to more banks in Indonesia.

The remittance business for Filipinos working overseas has grown from $4.3 billion in 1997 to $7.6 billion in 2003. There are over 7.5 million overseas Filipinos sending money back to the Philippines with an average individual remittance of $300 per month.

Worldwide, the fund transfer business reportedly has reached turnover volume of over $130 billion.

Meanwhile, Metrobank is aggressively expanding its international branch network through acquisitions, alliances and joint ventures.

It has existing alliances or joint venture arrangements with financial institutions and fund transfer agencies in Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, Korea, Guam, and mainland China.

It will open three more branches in Japan (Tokyo, Fukuoka and Nagoya) to complement its Tokyo and Osaka branches.

It is eyeing several more branches or additional alliances in North America. It already has 10 branches or existing alliances in New York and California which houses the biggest concentration of Filipinos in the US.

It plans to establish eight branches mainly through in Europe (five in Italy, two in Spain and one in Austria) on tap of its expansion program in London and the rest of the United Kingdom.

Villanueva revealed that they are prepared to spend as much as $300,000 per location in Europe (or roughly $2.4 million) since that was the allowable amount set by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).