Xoom extends money
transfer service to RP

SAN FRANCISCO, California--Xoom Corp. has announced that it is expanding its instant online-to-offline money transfer service to the Philippines, along with its local market distribution partner, Instant Cash -- a subsidiary of The Patel Group.
read story

OFW remittances up
5.7% in January-October

OVERSEAS Filipino workers remitted home about 6.3 billion dollars between January and October this year, up 5.7 percent from the same period last year, the central bank said Monday. This increase came even though the number of Filipinos who legally went abroad to work shrank by 9.9 percent to 698,691 during the same period, it said in a statement.
read story

OFW remittances seen
hitting $8B in 2004

DOLLAR inflow from eight million Filipinos working overseas is expected to hit eight billion dollars in 2004 as the improving global economy creates more and better job opportunities for nurses, information technology experts, seafarers, teachers, caregivers, and other professionals, according to Philippine central bank Governor Rafael Buenaventura.
read story

OFW remittances up
5.1 %: central bank

OVERSEAS Filipino workers (OFWs) remitted more than 5.66 billion dollars to the Philippines in the nine months to September, up 5.1 percent from last year, the central bank said Thursday. The rise in remittances came even though the number of Filipinos who went to work abroad in the first nine months of 2003 amounted to only 669,419, a decline of 5.6 percent from the same period in 2002.
read story

OFWs face tough
times in Hong Kong

HONG KONG--Filipino domestic helpers in Hong Kong face tougher times after the government here required employers to pay an additional 400 Hong Kong dollars a month starting October 1 that would eventually be deducted from the employees' wages.
read story

RP, US agree to improve
OFW remittance channels

A THREE-PRONGED approach to improve overseas Filipino worker (OFW) remittances to the Philippines and lower the cost of sending money is being firmed up as a result of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the United States and the Philippines to cooperate in strengthening remittance channels to the Philippines.
read story

OFW remittances help
country avoid recession

THE ECONOMY grew by a lower than expected 3.2 percent from a year earlier in the three months to June, narrowly avoiding a technical recession, officials said Thursday. But while the domestic economy nearly floundered, gross national product -- which takes into account income from the large army of overseas Filipino workers -- grew 4.5 percent in the second quarter from 2.3 percent in the same period last year.
read story

OFW remittances up
8% in 1st 6 months

MONEY sent by close to eight million Filipinos working overseas grew by eight percent in the first half to 3.88 billion dollars from 3.59 billion dollars a year ago despite a slight decline in inflow in June as the number of overseas workers who left for employment abroad shrunk during the month, according to the Philippine central bank.
read story

OFW remittances
up for 1st quarter

REMITTANCES of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) increased for the first quarter of this year despite a global economic downturn caused by the outbreak of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) said.

read story

Drilon bats for lower
OFW remittance charges

SENATE President Franklin Drilon vowed Thursday to push for the reduction of charges on remittances sent by Filipinos working in the United States to their families in the Philippines.

read story

Maximizing benefits
of OFW remittances

DAVAO CITY--The recent World Bank report, "Global Development Finance 2003," lists the Philippines as the third largest developing country receiving remittances from its migrant workers. Based on the 2001 remittance figures, India topped the list with 10 billion dollars. Mexico followed with 9.9 billion dollars, and the Philippines was third with 6.4 billion dollars. The three countries' remittances accounted for about 36 percent of total workers' remittance receipts of developing countries (some 72.3 billion dollars).

read story

Western Union announces
sweepstakes for customers

DENVER--With the grand prize totaling up to 25,000 dollars, Western Union Financial Services Inc. is giving Filipino customers a chance to win by entering the Western Union "Unlock the Vault" Sweepstakes. Between April 15 and June 14, all customers who make a Western Union Money Transfer transaction at a participating agent location in the US to the Philippines or Vietnam are automatically entered to win.

read story

Remittances down 2.9%

DOLLAR remittances fell 2.9 percent to 534.5 million dollars in January, as fewer Filipinos left for jobs abroad on concerns that a war could break out between the United States and Iraq.

read story

RCBC Canada
still remitting

RIZAL Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC) said its remittance operations in Canada continues to operate. The Yuchengco-controlled bank said some Canadian banks closed the deposit accounts of RCBC California International (Canada) Inc. but the latter continues to operate through RCBC Telemoney Canada.

read story

Solons opposing AMLA
changes hit with hate mail

THE 12 senators who opposed key amendments to the Anti-Money Laundering Law (AMLA) required to meet the standards of the Paris-based Financial Action Task Force (FATF) are being swamped with hate messages on their mobile phones and their websites.

read story

OFW remittances hit
all-time high of $7B

DOLLARS sent by an estimated eight million nurses, IT professionals, engineers, domestic helpers and other Filipinos working abroad reached an all-time high of seven billion in 2002, up 16.6 percent from six billion dollars in 2001 but below the original target of eight billion, according to preliminary data as the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) awaited reports of relatively small banks.

read story

Remittance delays seen
in face of int'l sanctions

THE BANKERS Association of the Philippines (BAP), which groups the country's biggest banks, advised the public Thursday to prepare for financial sanctions against the Philippines in case Congress refused to amend the Anti-Money Laundering Act (AMLA) as recommended by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the anti-money-laundering watchdog group to which the world's industrialized nations belong.

read story

Jan-Oct OFW dollar
remittances up 18%

OVERSEAS Filipino workers (OFWs), estimated at eight million, sent home 5.9 billion dollars to their families in January-October 2002, up 18 percent from five billion dollars in the same period in 2001, according to data from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).

read story

Palace to Congress: Don't
delay AMLA amendments

MALACAÑANG has appealed to both houses of Congress to immediately pass the amendment to the Anti-Money Laundering Law (AMLA) in order to help facilitate the remittances of thousands of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs).

read story

OFWs hit delay in changes
to RP anti-laundering law

LEADERS of a group of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) that claims a membership of at least seven million on Thursday pressed Congress to speed up the amendments to the anti-money-laundering law, after the central bank and bankers warned that the Philippines faced imminent international sanctions because the law was found to be inadequate in preventing the flow of money from illegal sources.

read story

Group to set up bank
for overseas Filipinos

A BANK owned, used and run by overseas Filipino workers. This is the flagship project of the OFW Net Foundation Inc., an organization geared toward the political and economic empowerment of OFWs worldwide.?

read story

Spotting fake dollars

FILIPINOS have a soft spot for dollars. Where else in the world can you find every slight hiccup in the foreign exchange rate treated as a national phenomenon?
But with the proliferation of fake dollar bills -- especially in the Philippines -- how do you tell which one is the real McCoy? No use having Uncle Sam's bills if they are funny money, right?

read story