Cheaper Australia-Philippines Remittances Using Blockchain
A company wants to use blockchain to speed up remittance transactions from Australia to the Philippines.
December 10, 2018. With blockchain remittances becoming available to Filipinos worldwide, Australia will soon have its own blockchain remittance system to cater to OFWs living in the Southern part of the world.
The $7 billion USD remittances in Australia continue to grow and with it, transfer fees are also rising. In order to solve this problem, a California-based blockchain company called HashCash will launch its product – HC Remit. It will cater to the Australian remittance market to make cross-border money transfer affordable.
By using the blockchain technology, this eliminates the issue of speed that usually takes days to process and the need for the receiver to have a bank account. The system will make it easier for the receiver to “receive” it since almost 70% of remittances are sent to rural areas or less developed locations.
The HC Remit system uses HashCash’s HC Net to carry out currency transfers that have the ability to cut remittance time and lower the cost.
Since most of the remittances in Australia use SWIFT to transfer remittances, HC Remit removes its processing cost and uses a free SWIFT-like blockchain-based messages.
In November 2018, CIMB Banking Group revealed its plan on using Ripple to run its cross-border payments to make it easier and faster. This move will lower the cost of transactions and also make it faster.
Another Ripple powered remittance platform called SendFriend also aims to cut costs and speed up remittances from the US to the Philippines. By using this platform, it can cut up to 65% of the usual transfer fees.
Investment Evolution Coin Ltd. based in Singapore also wants to help Overseas Filipino Workers living in Europe and the Middle East by providing a fast and free payment to the country.
In a study by Ken Research, the use of blockchain in remittances will help lessen its cost by 2022. According to the research, the ethereum blockchain will play a big role in it.
Mr. Luis Buenaventura, Founder of Bloom Solutions, also shared his thoughts in an interview with ANC on the adoption of blockchain technology in remittance. He said that the lack of awareness hinders its adoption as current remittance companies are not aware that they can use the technology.
I’d be interested to find out more about how the blockchain can benefit the unbanked and the destitute in the Philippines. A lot has been said about international money transfers that are now faster and cheaper.
However, if the recipient is in a province with no bank available and the sender is in Manila working in a low paying job they’d be at a great disadvantage.
The fees for domestic transfers can be very high for this sector of the economy. More often than not, the sender would need a tricycle ride to a remittance centre adding to the cost of the transfer and the recipient would have to rely on a pawnshop to get cash out. The question we need to ask ourselves is how can we make this more affordable to benefit those that need it most.
I’d be interested to find out more about how the blockchain can benefit the unbanked and the destitute in the Philippines. A lot has been said about international money transfers that are now faster and cheaper.
However, if the recipient is in a province with no bank available and the sender is in Manila working in a low paying job they’d be at a great disadvantage.
The fees for domestic transfers can be very high for this sector of the economy. More often than not, the sender would need a tricycle ride to a remittance centre adding to the cost of the transfer and the recipient would have to rely on a pawnshop to get cash out. The question we need to ask ourselves is how can we make this more affordable to benefit those that need it most.