Smart taps remittances from Qatar, Australia

MANILA, Philippines - Filipinos in Qatar and Australia can send remittances to the Philippines, through a partnership between Smart Money, the world’s first electronic wallet service, and BICS (Belgacom International Carrier Services), an international provider of mobile financial services. Those living in Qatar can send money from their mobile wallet with Qatar Telecom (Qtel), while those in Australia can use their account with mHITs. Qtel is a leading international company in the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region and Southeast Asia, which provides mobile phone services, broadband solutions, and fiber technologies. mHITs is an Australia-based pioneer developer and operator of mobile payment services. Under the partnership, the sending markets will gradually be expanded to include several countries in the Middle East, Asia, and Europe. Funds transferred to Smart Money electronic wallets – which are linked to the account holder’s Smart mobile number – can be used for mobile payment of utility bills (Meralco, Maynilad, PLDT, etc.), reloading Smart prepaid accounts, and money transfers to other Smart Money accounts. The Smart Money card can be used to withdraw the remittance from more than 10,000 BDO, BancNet, Megalink, and ExpressNet automated teller machines nationwide, and from almost 5,000 Smart Money Centers in the country. It can also be used to do cashless shopping in more than 32 million MasterCard merchants worldwide.