Beyond remittances

It’s a common story among returning overseas Filipino workers.

After years of working abroad, scrimping on his own needs so he can send the bulk of his salary to the family he left behind, he finally comes home with no work prospects and, worse, no savings to tide him over.

"It’s hard for OFWs to save," said Richardo So, vice-president of Equitable PCI Bank and remittance head of the Express Padala Center. "When he comes home for a vacation, he spends an average of P2,000 a day to treat out his extended family and to help out friends and neighbors. In a month, his vacation would have easily cost him P60,000. Bear in mind that the vacation money he spends is on top of the monthly remittance he sends to support the family."

To help OFWs save, Equitable PCI has an special self-allottee account which is better known among its depositors by an acronym, KSA, which is short for "kupit sa asawa".

Under the terms and conditions of the self-allottee account, the bank will disavow any knowledge of the account to the spouse and relatives of the OFW-depositor. Only the OFW-depositor can withdraw from the account which can be started with a minimum P50 deposit.

For a minimum starting deposit of P5,000, the self-allottee account can be structured so the money saved cannot be withdrawn until maturity or when the OFW’s overseas contract is completed.

"We want to evolve the Express Padala remittance package into a one stop-shop for OFWs," said executive vice-president for retail operations Rene Buenaventura. "We want to help the returning OFWs augment his future livelihood and investment plans. He should have something concrete to show for when his overseas assignment is completed."

Towards this end, Equitable PCI has entered into an agreement with a marketing company called JC Paez, which will book OFW orders for appliances and pre-need products . Existing bank products such as "Own-A-Home" are being modified to make them viable financing programs of Express Padala. New products, including a trust product that will be launched before the end of the year, are also being developed for OFWs.

Pioneer

Equitable PCI’s remittance business, which is called Express Padala, was started in 1992.

"At that time, there were hundreds of thousands of Filipinos working in the Middle East and there was no Filipino bank which paid attention to their financial needs," said senior vice-president for corporate planning Elbert Zosa, who was then head of the bank’s international group.

Deciding on Saudi Arabia, which hosted the most number of Filipino workers, as the bank’s beachhead was an easy decision. "Our biggest problem was to look for the best distribution system. We looked at the free time of the OFWs or the time outside work when he can remit his salary home," Zosa said. "We found out OFWs had peculiar hours. During his free time, commercial banks were closed but the money-changers were open."

Zosa pushed for a tie-up with Al-Rajhi, the largest money changer in the kingdom which has since converted into an Islamic bank.

Today, Equitable PCI has the largest international remittance network among Philippine banks with 25 Express Padala branches and more than 100 remittance correspondents in Asia, the Middle East, Europe and the United States. In part because it pioneered the business in these areas, Equitable PCI dominates the remittance business in the Middle East and in Europe.

Based on industry estimates, only three-fourths or about $6 billion of total dollars remitted to the country are coursed through the banking system by four million OFWs, excluding immigrants to the United States. On the average, an OFW based in Hong Kong remits $200 a month; in the Middle East, $300 a month; and in Europe, $400 a month.

Big money

Equitable PCI’s remittance business is centralized at the Express Padala Center in Ermita. The center is open 24 hours, seven days a week. It is closed only three days of the year: Christmas, New Year and Good Friday.

The rest of the year, the center’s 102 employees are assigned one of daily three shifts. "We make assignment adjustments for peak periods," So said. For example, our busiest time of the month are the first 10 days. Our busiest time of the year are March, which is graduation time; May, which is enrollment time; October, which is second semester enrollment time; and, of course, December."

Families of OFWs get their money within 24 hours if they maintain an account with Equitable PCI Bank. The meter starts running when the payment instruction is made abroad and not when the money is received in the Philippines.

If the beneficiary maintains an account with another bank, the money is remitted to the head office of the other bank within 48 hours.

For those who cannot wait 24 hours, Express Padala offers a service called "Money Gram" where the beneficiary can walk into any Equitable PCI branch and ask for the money in minutes. One of two official agents of Western Union in the country, the bank has a premium tiered pricing for the product , starting with a $12 fee for the first $300.

For families who don’t have the time to go to the bank, Express Padala also offers door-to-door delivery, which now accounts for 20% of its business. For an additional fee, say $4 if the HK remittance is delivered anywhere in Metro Manila, the money will be delivered to the family home.

"We’ve outsourced the delivery. The delivery company will try to deliver the money three times to the person specified by the OFW. If the specified person is not there on the third try, the money is returned to us. We immediately contact our OFW client that we have failed to deliver the money and we ask for new instructions, " So said.

Walking that extra mile and treating OFWs as valuable bank clients has helped Equitable PCI maintain its dominance in the remittance business.