iRemit expands worldwide presence
Cash transfer firm iRemit Inc. will set up shops in Ireland, Germany and Netherlands this year to reach out to the non-Filipino market, especially the populous Chinese.
The country’s leading non-bank remittance firm doubled its net profit last year to P136 million from a year ago despite the global slowdown. To grow its business, it has recently started serving the Chinese market and will also soon cater to remittances bound for Indonesia and Myanmar.
About $1.4 billion in remittances were coursed through iRemit last year, equivalent to a 7-percent market share.
The company’s remittance volume had expanded by 17 percent year-on-year, with Singapore, Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom and Taiwan as its biggest remittance sources.
This year, iRemit has started collecting remittance funds bound for China through a tie-up with Bank of China, which has 15,000 branches all over the mainland.
China is the world’s second largest recipient of remittances, amounting to about $51 billion, or more than double the $20-billion Philippine remittance flows in 2011.
