Banks should post remittance prices

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) should require banks to visibly display their international remittance prices on their websites. We see no reason why regulators cannot compel banks to clearly post their applicable remittance prices for all to see. Banks are already obliged to make public most of their other fees and charges anyway. Greater transparency from banks with respect to their remittance prices would give more meaning to the rights of consumers, mainly our migrant workers, to be informed and to choose.

We have been batting for reduced bank remittance charges to help ease the burden on migrant Filipino workers and their families. The less our workers pay for bank money transfer charges, the more cash goes into the pockets of their families here.

The United Nations’ Social Development Goals seek to lessen income inequality by eventually lowering the cost of an international cash remittance to a global average of three percent of the amount sent.

Banks remain the most expensive type of (remittance) service provider, with an average cost of 10.51 percent of the amount sent, according to the World Bank’s Remittance Prices Worldwide quarterly report as of September this year. The report basically implies that for every $200 sent home through banks, our migrant workers pay an average of $21.02 in transfer charges, which is too much.

Overseas Filipinos prefer to wire their money home via banks despite the rise of Western Union Co., MoneyGram International Inc. and other non-bank remittance agents. Banks capture some 85 percent of the money sent home by overseas Filipinos, the World Bank said.--ACTS-OFW