Listed non-bank and fully-Filipino owned remittance company iRemit targets to exceed its total remittances for 2011 pegged at $1.4 billion by expansion in the remittance industry, establishing an online platform and innovating its services following industry and consumer trends this year.
The firm’s president and COO Harris Jacildo said the remittance firm grew faster than the projected growth rate of the industry which is 7.3 percent, registering a double digit growth in terms of remittances volume and in terms of US dollar amount. He also noted that they will sustain double digit growth with the expansion plans this year.
Jacildo said expansion plans for i-Remit for 2012 will be for the Middle East. “We continue to look at the Middle East. We are exerting a lot of efforts and aggressiveness as we plan to cover the whole of Middle East within this year,” he said.
Currently, i-Remit has penetrated the markets of UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, Lebanon, Jordan and Israel and their next target is Saudi Arabia, which is the biggest market/largest concentration of OFWs in the region. “We are working with a partnership with the biggest bank in Saudi Arabia, Bank Al Bilad, although nothing is firm yet,” the company president noted.
The company will also open a branch in Japan within this year, its 27th country to enter. “We are now looking at a site in Japan. But as to which city in Japan we will open, wala pa. One consideration is looking for the more lucrative market, but we also have to look at where the competitors are,” Jacildo said.
iRemit first vice president and corporate affairs and information head Fitzgerald Duba noted that Filipinos are becoming more technology-savvy, especially OFWs, to be in touch with families, and more are becoming comfortable with technology especially with the rise of smartphones. With that, i-Remit is set to launch an online platform called i-Remit Direct Online (iDOL) initially in Canada.
Jacildo said they are are partnered with the Royal Bank of Canada but they will not be tying up with them in this transaction. “However, there will be a link to the accounts which can be debited from it and transferred to the i-Remit account,” he added.
Next countries for i-Remit to implement iDOL are countries with same profile of OFWs such as Australia, New Zealand, UK and Japan.
iRemit was recently placed under the supervision of BSP as we have to conform to higher standards of corporate governance and compliance to policies as far as remittance is concerned which will result in more OFWs/customers confidence.
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