Metrobank remains a major player in remittance business

Metropolitan Bank and Trust Co., the country’s biggest lender, remains a major player in the remittance business with an estimated $3.25 billion in money transfer transactions last year.

The bank said it coursed $2.7 billion in remittances during the first 10 months of 2006.

Assuming a minimum monthly remittance business of $270 million, Metrobank likely transacted business worth at least $540 million in the last two months of 2006, bringing its total 2006 remittances at over $3.25 billion.

The bank’s original target for 2006 was between $2.8 billion to $3 billion. In 2005, it reported businesses worth $2.66 billion. In the first semester alone, total transactions coursed through Metrobank’s distribution network already amounted to $1.4 billion, or roughly half of its lower-end full-year target.

In 2005, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) reported total remittances through the formal or banking sectors amounting to $10.6 billion. Last year, the monetary authority expected it to grow to over $12 billion.

Metrobank corners roughly 20 percent of the remittance business through the banking system.

Carmelita R. Araneta, Metrobank senior vice president and head of the international offices and subsidiaries, said 47 percent of their total transactions came from the Asia Pacific market including Japan; another 35 percent from the Americas; and 16 percent from the European market.

Total transactions from the Middle East are sourced only through tie-ups and correspondent banks, which accounts for a third of the bank’s remittances.

In terms of value per transactions, the Americas remain the top contributor. Europe and Japan are in second and third places, followed by the Middle East.

Araneta noted that Europe is still a market where its potential has still to be fully appreciated.

The country’s largest bank has an international network composed of nine foreign branches, 23 remittance offices, 37 remittance tie-ups, and more than a thousand correspondent banks.

In its domestic network, Metrobank relies principally on its 557 branches and the 150 branches of sister company Philippine Savings Bank (PSBank).