PHILIPPINES--Global money transfer services provider Western Union, has signed separate deals with the country's top mobile carriers Smart Communications and Globe Telecom to jointly develop and pilot mobile money transfer services in the Philippines.
In a statement released end-January, Western Union said the service was developed as part of the GSMA Association's Mobile Money Transfer initiative, which aims to make low-principal, high frequency remittances available to the country's more than 8 million overseas Filipino workers.
Western Union said the deals are expected to complement the existing mobile money transfer of Smart and Globe. The two mobile operators have a combined subscriber base of almost 50 million.
Smart Communications has its own mobile financial service called Smart Money, while Globe coins its service GCASH.
According to media reports, Smart ended 2007 with more than 30 million subscribers, and that more than 7 million Smart subscribers were part of the Smart Money system.
Rival carrier Globe Telecom's GCASH, meanwhile, features an electronic wallet that allows users to send and receive cash and make payments, including bill payments, donations and online purchases via texting on their mobile device.
Globe Telecom reportedly had more than 19 million subscribers, as of the end of September 2007, and close to 500,000 active GCASH users.
Western Union, together with its affiliates Orlandi Valuta and Vigo, maintains the industry's largest global money transfer Agent network with more than 320,000 locations in over 200 countries and territories, the company said.
According to recent World Bank data, the Philippines is the fourth-largest receiver of remittances in the world and received an estimated US$17 billion in 2007.
Following the launch of the Western Union mobile money transfer pilot, the company said, the service will connect operators to Western Union's existing global money transfer system. Once connected to the Western Union service, operators will be able to use their own "mobile wallet" software to enable person-to-person mobile money transfers over Western Union's cross-border remittance network, the company said.
The company said the mobile money transfer service will enable consumers to transfer money to, and from, mobile wallets and will offer a global network of Western Union Agent locations for cash-to-mobile and mobile-to-cash transactions.
Joel D. Pinaroc is a freelance IT writer based in the Philippines.
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