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BSP to waive money transfer fees for banks


Banks using the Philippine Payments and Settlements System to process money sent home by overseas Filipino workers need not pay the fees charged by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas for six months. “The Monetary Board has approved the waiver for six months of fees for banks servicing overseas Filipinos transacting thru Philpass. This will help enable banks to lower their remittance fees," BSP Gov. Amando Tetangco Jr. told reporters. The system, also called Philpass, is operated by the central bank and serves as a clearinghouse for money transfer transaction. It eliminates the need for courier services even when and OFW sends money from one bank to another. Philpass Remit would lower remittance fees to P50 for each transaction, from current fees ranging from P150 to P500. Most banks that offer money transfer service would be on stream next September, the central bank said. With the lower cost of sending money to relatives in the Philippines, OFW families would be able to save P92 million to P922 million in remittances fees per year. The BSP and the Association of Bank Remittance Officers Inc. or ABROI agreed in December to lower backend fees – that run as high as P550 per transaction – to only P50 starting next July. But not all banks use the central bank’s real time gross settlement system – a fast and efficient way of clearing money transfers under Philpass – and not all banks are members of ABROI. Technical adjustments would still have to be made so that each bank’s computer could communicate with Philpass in the right electronic language, the BSP said. Because banks, like the state-owned LandBank of the Philippines manage and process thousands of remittance transactions per day the fees combined add up substantially to loss of OFW families. Banks like the Metropolitan Bank and Trust Co. and the Bank of the Philippine Islands handle more OFW-related transactions than LandBank. —VS, GMANews.TV

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