A new remittance system that will allow for a safer, faster and cheaper remittances by OFWs (overseas Filipino workers) will be implemented by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) starting on the third quarter of the year.

This is the new Philippine Payments and Settlements System or Philpass Remit System. Under this new system, the fee will be reduced to P50 per remittance transaction, resulting to savings of P100 to P500, as the current system charges ranges from P150 to P550.

BSP said the Philpass Remit System ensures safer, faster and cheaper means of remittance transaction.

The system involves the use of the BSP-Philpass as the local clearinghouse for the transfer of remittances from a local bank to another bank where the OFW beneficiary maintains an account.

This project was undertaken jointly by the BSP with the Association of Bank Remittance Officers Inc. (ABROI) through a memorandum of agreement signed last December.

The scheduled implementation of the project was supposed in the first quarter of the year, however, only one bank was able to migrate to the new system since the MOA was signed.

The central bank said they will need to wait for the other member banks to resolve their issues on hardware and system connectivity, so they can finally migrate before the new remittance system will be fully operational.

More job opportunities for Filipino nurses and engineers are waiting in New Zealand and Australia. Filipino professionals will have more chances of finding jobs in New Zealand and Australia as these two countries vowed to increase their demand for healthcare and skilled workers.

This commitment came after the enforcement of the ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand Free Trade Agreement (AANZFTA) in January this year.

An effort to raise awareness on the benefit of the said agreement were made by the Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI), in partnership with the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), through a series of seminar there held last week.

The agreement states that up to 100 Filipino nurses will be allowed by New Zealand to work there as registered nurses at any one time for a period of three years. They will be given working visas while they are undergoing the required bridging courses and exam.

Up to 20 Philippine farm managers and 20 Philippine engineering professionals will also be allowed to enter the country at any one time for a period of three years.

Andrew Matheson, New Zealand Ambassador to the Philippines, disclosed that the New Zealand government has also agreed to work with the Philippines to help develop the local dairy industry, an industry that currently supplies only about one percent of this country’s demand.

A negotiation for a reciprocal working holiday scheme open to up to 100 citizens of each country may also be entered into between New Zealand and the Philippines, allowing young people to stay for up to a year and work to support their extended vacation.

Subject to a certain condition, Matheson also said New Zealand would allow entry of independent professional service suppliers for up to one year, and entry of business visitors, installers or servicers for up to three months in any calendar year.

“The trade negotiators have done their jobs and it is now up to businesses to take advantage of this agreement and let the benefits of the AANZFTA flow through to businesses and consumers,” said Matheson.

After securing a license to operate in Europe, iRemit made true to its commitment of servicing overseas Filipino worker (OFWs) staying in the region with iRemit Europe.

Now, still the largest Filipino-owned non-bank remittance company, iRemit wants to strengthen its presence in Europe as it plans to open more branches in major cities in the region.

iRemit will be opening more branches in Europe, namely in Milan, Florence, Padua, Plato, Venice, Genoa and Naples, as stated in the company’s disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange.

Aside from those mentioned, iRemit president and chief operating officer Harris Jacildo said the also plans to open branches in France and Switzerland to tap and provide service to the the fast-growing European OFW market.

“This ambitious plan to open branches in the region simultaneously and aggressively pursue opportunities in other territories is a very strategic move that characterizes iRemit as an industry trailblazer,” Jacildo said.

And as Bansan Choa, chairman and chief executive officer of iRemit, the company deemed its high time to move into “previously unchartered territories” to take advantage of opportunities to expand the business and extend its target market to include more Filipinos and other nationals.

iRemit was founded in 2001, and to date still remains to be the largest Filipino-owned non-bank remittance company in the Philippines. It has already established presences in 27 countries in North America, Asia Pacific, Europe and the Middle East with more than 5,000 payout partners nationwide.

The auction of the retail treasury bonds of the Philippine government has been completed and according to National Treasurer Roberto Tan, $500 million have been raise from the sale of the retail, multi-currency bond.

Tan was happy to report that they completed the total tender of $5000 million, based on the preliminary information he had received. These RTBs were sold to small investors and institutional buyers as well.

Before conducting the auction, Tan and his group composed of officials from the government and issue underwriters went to different countries and conducted “financial literacy seminars” for overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) and discussed with them the benefits of investing the said retail bonds. Tan said they were received warmly during those seminars by OFWs from the United States, Europe and some parts of Asia.

Manila scrapped Tuesday’s sale of P8.5 billion ($192 million) worth of 5-year bonds following the retail bond issue. Tan said there were no plans to cancel more Treasure debt auctions after the bond offer.

According to the preliminary reports received by Tan, the government was able to raise nearly $350 million from an auction of the foreign currency bonds on April 21. The rest were sold during the public offer which ended on Tuesday.

$200 million worth of 3-year US dollar bonds were sold at a coupon rate of 2.875% at an auction on April 21. The government also sold 5-year US dollar bonds at a coupon rate of 4.125% to raise $98 million.

Meanwhile, Manila also auctioned 5-year and 3-year Euro bonds worth $4 million Euros and 35 million Euros, respectively.

Philippine National Bank (PNB), the country’s seventh largest bank in terms of assets, has signed an agreement with the Bank of China (BOC) in handling remittances of Chinese nationals who are based in Italy. PNB’s tie-up with BOC expands the market coverage  PNB Italy SpA, which was established primarily to facilitate remittances of Filipinos who are in Italy.

PNB, acknowledging the significance of the signed deal, said that there are about 745,000 Chinese overseas contract workers in Italy at present and therefore the agreement a real expansion in their market. 2008 remittances to China reached $24 billion, according to data from World Bank.

In their agreement, remittances of Chinese nationals could be coursed through PNB who will in turn transfer the money to a BOC account, through the latter’s Manila office or any other bank accounts of the remitters’ beneficiaries.

Aside from its tie-up with BOC, PNB said it is still looking to establish more strategic partnership to expand its non-Filipino remittance business, particularly in Europe.

PNB claims to have the widest international footprint among local banks.  It has a network comprising 110 branches, offices and subsidiaries spread across the Asia-Pacific region, North America, Europe and the Middle East.

Its remittances for 2008 reached about $2.6 billion, which accounts for 16 percent of total remittances handled by local banks. PNB  ranked third in terms of remittance volume, competing aggressively with Banco de Oro and Bank of the Philippine Islands.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas said remittances coursed through banks last year reached a record volume of $17.3 billion. This year, BSP has projected an increase of 6 percent from this volume.

The United States may really be on the rebound. The Philippines Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) said there will be more jobs in the US this year. Employment opportunities in the US would be mostly in the construction and oil industries, POEA said.

US is once again opening its doors to foreign workers, more than a year after the onset of the global financial crisis. “The US economy is slowly recovering, which is good news for us because that means they are ready to open employment for foreign workers,” said Hans Leo Cacdad, POEA deputy administrator.

Aside from US, POEA director Stella Banawis said they also see higher demands in traditional markets for OFWs, like Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Singapore and other Asian counries.

“We have 13,000 job orders for nurses as well as seasonal workers in US last year, some of them vacancies that have yet to be filled and we can use them in 2010,” Banawis said.

Jennifer Manalili, POEA administrator, said they will continue looking for additional markets for the Filipino workers this year.

Labor Secretary Marianito Roque, on the other hand, is projecting 5,000 additional jobs in animation industry and about 150,000 more in the call centers this year.

Roque said this was mainly because call centers are now starting to operate outside Metro Manila, like Cebu, Baguio and Davao, providing more employment opportunities for people in the provinces.

Peso closed at its highest for the last 15 months. Last Fridays dealing ended with the Philippine peso at a level of P46 to $1, in a 15-month record high attributed specifically to the influx of remittances for overseas Filipino workers.

Not surprisingly, because of the holiday season, we can expect more Filipinos overseas to send money to their love ones here in the country. Also, the financial assistance pouring in from kababayans abroad for the victims of recent typhoon, adding in to the volume of transactions.

The volume of transacted dollars ballooned from Thursday’s $633.36 million to $1 billion on Friday.

With the holiday season still far from over, we can expect more remittances from OFWs and hopefully this could push further the appreciation of our peso.

Now, families who have love ones working overseas can now call reach to them in a more affordable rate. That is because Globe Telecom brings down international call and text rates.

The lower rates from Globe is the companies commitment to help local residents get more chance to spend more talk time with their families and friends overseas, especially this holiday season.

From a previous rate of 40 cents, or an estimated amount of P20 per minute of overseas calls, subscribers will now just have to pay as low as P2.50 per minute to selected countries.

Likewise, International SMS or text messaging now costs P5 per ISMS to top 50 destinations.

Globe prepaid and postpaid subscribers can avail of the said rate, as well as the TM subscribers. There is no need to register nor use an access code or special cards to avail of the special ISMS rate.

Previously, Globe also designed new products to help OFW familiess to keep in touch with each other, such the tipIDD card, the Globe IDD Suki load and the Globe IDD Sakto calls.

The largest Filipino-owned non-bank remittance company has further widen its customer base of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs).

iRemit was able to secure license to do business in Europe.

The remittance company stated in its disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange advising them of the registration of iRemit Europe in the general list of financial intermediaries as a provider of money transfer services under Art. 106 of the legislative decree of Italy’s Banking Law.

“With the said registration, the company will widen its market reach, allowing it to service the remittance needs of more Filipinos living and working in Italy,” iRemit said.

The company is also securing a license to operate in Macau to be able to reach to more Filipinos working overseas.

Do you know of someone who has made an exceptional success overseas? If you do, then here’s your chance to nominate them to be among this year’s outstanding Pinoys.

This is a search being conducted annually by the Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI), as a tribute to exception overseas Filipinos in their respective fields. The deadline for the nomination is June 30, 2009.

You can send your nominations by email to bpinoyawards-@bpi.com.ph or by mail to Paul Joseph V. Fonte, Marketing Department, Overseas Customers Division, Bank of the Philippine Islands, 6/F BPI Family Savings Bank Center, Paseo de Roxas cor. Dela Rosa St., Makati City 1226, Metro Manila.

An individual or an organization my submit a nomination, as long as their nominees: has established a name and is currently active in his or her field; worked or lived overseas; of good moral character; and has not yet received similar awards from other banking institutions.

The winners will be receiving a BPInoy trophy and P100,000 worth of cash to be donated to their chosen charity.

Two winners will be chosen – one for Arts and Media or Sports category, and another for Business or Science and Technology category.

The BPInoy Awards Steering Committee Nominations will be screening all nominations.

Recipients of this award in past are, singer and musical artist Lea Salonga, heart surgeon Dr. George Garcia, entrepreneur Diosdado Banatao, fashion designers Monique Lhuillier and Josie Natori, and BBC anchor Rico Hizon.