Caribbean Remittance Forum

Note: Due to recent events in Jamaica, this Forum is due for rescheduling.

I'm off to Kingston, Jamaica this Monday to participate in the Caribbean Remittance Forum hosted by the World Bank in cooperation with the Canadian Government and the University of West Indies. The regional forum aims at sharing knowledge and generating dialogue to enhance the efficiency and integrity of the migration and remittance transfer process in the Caribbean region through effective regulatory and supervisory processes.

The Philippines has been invited to participate in the forum to share experiences in the regulation of innovative remittance products. As a regulator, I will be discussing the overall Philippine scenario on remittance and the policies set in place to provide proactive guidance to different participants in the remittance system.

The Philippine approach to the regulation of mobile commerce, which includes remittance and money transfers, has been favorably recognized by publications such as The Economist. I wrote about it here. Yet, every opportunity for knowledge sharing such as this still holds lessons to be learned and applied to further improve and maximize the benefits to be derived from a well-functioning remittance and payment system.

I will be sharing more on this in future posts, and I hope you will join in the discussions.

Electronic Money in the Philippines

The use of electronic means of payments in the Philippines has been around for quite a while, and it has even gained the attention of The Economist magazine - click HERE for the article A Bank In Every Pocket?. If you can't see the article, you can sign up for a free 14-day subscription that will allow you access to the article and other archives.

In my case, I was fortunate to be able to travel to Chennai, India as a resource speaker to discuss the use of mobile banking technologies for microfinance operations, as part of the International Development Law Organization's (IDLO) series of workshops.

What is common with these electronic modes of payment is the convenience and speed that it can provide to the user. The term branchless banking has been used loosely to describe these payments methods, since it allows an individual to conduct transactions that can normally be performed by an individual with a bank account. Since some of these instruments did not originate from or issued by banks, the term mobile commerce or m-commerce is being used to describe it more appropriately.

For its part, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (the Philippine central bank) has issued Circular No. 649 in 2009, as the primary regulation to govern the issuance of electronic money and the operations of electronic money issuers.

Related Posts:

E-Money in the Philippines: Introduction
What is E-Money?
Types of E-Money