Xpress Money eyes tie-ups with rural banks

Xpress Money targets to serve in at least 1,500 more locations in the Philippines in 2012 through partnerships with rural banks in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.

MANILA, Philippines—Xpress Money, a global money transfer firm, seeks to expand its presence in the Philippines by entering into partnership deals with rural banks nationwide.

Joel Candy, head of the company’s business development in Asia-Pacific, said Xpress Money was targeting to serve in at least 1,500 more locations in the country this year through partnerships with rural banks in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.

Candy said the company believed that entering into partnerships with rural banks was a prudent way to expand its business given the significant number of households in the provinces that receive remittances from family members working offshore.

Currently, Xpress Money operates in the Philippines through partnerships with several banks and non-bank institutions, including Metrobank, Banco de Oro, Chinabank, I-Remit, Cebuana Lhuillier and GCash.

It has operations in 125 more countries, including those where there are huge concentrations of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) like countries from the Middle East.

Through the facility of Xpress Money, OFWs and other money senders from abroad who have beneficiaries in countries like the Philippines are able to remit the funds. The beneficiaries pick up the remittances from the bank and non-bank partners in the recipient country.

“We want more distribution points and penetrate the market more,” Candy told the Inquirer Sunday during the opening of its Overseas Filipino Workers Center in Manila. The OFW Center, the company’s corporate social responsibility project, is a venue for educating remittance-dependent households on savings and investments.

The expansion plans of Xpress Money come amid its positive outlook on remittances. Candy said that despite the ongoing global economic uncertainties, brought about by the prolonged debt crisis in the eurozone, remittances to the Philippines are expected to continue growing.