Citibank to go into remittance business

After taking a significant chunk of the credit card market, Citibank NA is now trying its hand on the money transfer or remittances business for Filipinos residing or working in the United States.

Launched last year, the US-based financial institution will use its money cards or automatic teller machine (ATM) card to cater to the relatives of some 2.7 million Filipinos residing in the US.

Citibank has tapped its subsidiary – Citibank West (United States) – to cater to the remittance business which also includes migrants from Mexico, India, South America and Eastern Europe.

Citibank West has over 900 branches US-wide although only 50 branches, mainly in Nevada and California are prepared or capable of servicing remittances from Filipino migrants.

"We want to make all our 900 branches US-wide open to Filipinos," Calixto Garcia-Velez, Citibank West FSB president, said.

Garcia-Velez claims the cost of each transaction is only $8 which could be remitted by relatives in the Philippines through the ATM machines of BancNet and Mega-Link.

If the Philippine transaction is done in Citibank-based ATMs, there are no other fees. Interbank fees, however, apply for ATMs with other banks but within the MegaLink or BancNet networks.

Another distribution channel locally is Citibank Savings Bank, a product of the acquisition of Citibank of the then Insular Savings Bank. The thrift bank presently has 15 fully-operational branches, with another 21 branches expected to be fully online soon.

Garcia-Velez said that they are also offering various services and products for Filipinos in the US. Among these are a life insurance policy worth $250,000 coverage aside from savings and checking accounts.