PNB remittances hit $2.3-B in 2003

Last year, the Philippine National Bank (PNB) reported total dollar inflows from overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) channeled through its overseas offices, affiliates, partners and correspondent banks amounted to $2.3 billion.

The volume represents a six-percent growth over the $2.17 billion remittance volume in 2002, and matches last year’s national OFW remittance growth rate figure.

"To widen its reach, it established new offices in populous Filipino migrant centers such as Scarborough, Montreal and Mississauga in Canada; Moreno Valley in California, US; Nagoya, Japan; Causeway Bay, Hong Kong; and relocated its office in Singapore to a central location frequented by OFWs. These increased PNB’s global presence to 92 offices," PNB overseas remittance head Jose Vicente Cuizon said.

PNB also expanded its distribution channel through collaboration with partners.

In Hong Kong, Citibank and convenience store chain 7-Eleven effectively added 480 outlets to PNB’s nine remittance offices. The facility, introduced at the height of the SARS crisis in late February 2003, now contributes over 20 percent of PNB, Hong Kongs total monthly remittance transactions.

PNB started a similar program with Bank Mandiri in Indonesia in providing remittance services to overseas Indonesian workers in Hong Kong. This is a new market with great potential, as Indonesians now comprise the second biggest group of foreign workers in Hong Kong and other parts of Asia.

The tie-up, forged in early June 2003, registered nearly 4,000 transactions in 2003.

Anticipating the effects of the Iraq war, the bank launched the PNB Tele-Ugnayan Rapid Connect sa Middle East project. Collaborating with the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) and leading telecom companies, it enabled OFWs in the affected areas to keep in touch with their families for free via the telephone, mobile and internet media.