Analyzing the results of IMTC ASIA 2018 in Manila September 19-21, the first thing that comes to mind is the very interesting state of the money transfer industry in The Philippines. Companies, colleagues, regulators, government representatives, were very open to share their ideas, their work, their vision, which contributed to understand key transformations that the industry is going through. As a summary of my key points, I will state:
• Regulation in The Philippines is moving forward and the BSP is keeping up with technology and innovation by issuing a wide array of licenses to formalize remittances and supervising the health of the industry. Check Mr. Dindo Santos presentation in downloads – 2018 – IMTC ASIA
• Derisking is affecting remittance management in the country: 160 operating accounts of Philippine Banks and Remittance Companies have been closed by 52 correspondent banks in 18 countries. Check Mr. George Inocencio’s presentation in downloads
• Blockchain and Virtual Currencies are impacting remittances in the country with licensed companies using bitcoin as a settlement currency, bypassing banks and offering more competitive exchange rates to the peso. Ckeck Bloom’s and Coins.ph presentations
• Banks are losing ground in their remittance payment market share dropping by 10% (to under 50%) in the last 3-4 years.
• The PesoNet initiative (24/7 Fast Clearance Payments) at no cost to network users will change the industry without a clear indication of who will be the winners ore losers. On one side bank deposits can now be done in real time, favoring banks, but non-bank network users can now make deposits to all banks and mobile wallets at no cost, something that banks are still battling. The clear winners are the remittance customers and that’s the government’s intentions.
• Compliance Culture and transaction monitoring is an issue that remittance payment providers in the country are taking seriously with concerns on human trafficking, child pornography and terrorism financing. The MTCC Compliance Course taught by Zory Muñoz & Jay Postma was very well received.
• The organized migration management of POEA and the welfare management programs of OWWA are a model for many countries in the world and the effect on the continuous increase in remittances to the country is a proof of that.Check Mr. Torres presentation.

I am leaving some great points that were highlighted by the participants in order to be brief. I must thank our Filipino Hosts that did everything possible for the conference to be a success. Our sponsors were superb: Uniteller, Bloom, Remiit, KoronaPay, Contact, M L’Huillier, LBC, OnlinePay, Flutterware, thank you for your tremendous support.

Please make sure to watch the great interviews taken at IMTC ASIA that are now being uploaded into our YouTube Channel