BPI projects 2-digit growth in remittance business

MANILA, Philippines - The Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) is looking at a conservative double digit growth in remittances this year, despite the strong showing in the first three months of 2012.

BPI president and chief executive officer Aurelio Luis R. Montinola admitted that in the first three months of 2012, remittances already grew 16 percent.

“That is better than the industry estimates of a high single digit growth this year,” Montinola said.

Last year, international money transfers from overseas Filipino that were coursed through BPI grew 16 percent to $5.5 billion, twice the growth rate recorded by the industry of seven percent.

Remittances from overseas Filipinos account for roughly nine percent of gross domestic product (GDP), and the principal fuel for personal consumption. In turn, private spending as well as government spending for infrastructure has been two of the most important contributors to Philippine growth in the past year.

Meanwhile, Filipino seafarers are still in demand, and foreign manning agencies have partnered with local agencies for upgrading the training for Filipino junior officers.

BPI senior vice president for overeas banking group Raul D. Dimayuga explained that foreign and domestic manning agencies prefer Filipino officers over their European counterparts as they are just as skilled, speak English, but a lot cheaper.

They also prefer Filipino officers over their Asian counterparts as Filipinos are more skilled and have a better grasp of the English language.

“They are also very flexible and can be relied on in situations,” Dimayuga, who is also the president of BPI Direct Savings Bank, said. BPI is believed to corner a market share of over 60 percent of sea-based overseas deployments.

Filipino sailors aboard foreign merchant ships sent home via bank wire a record $4.340 billion in 2011, an increase of $534 million or 14 percent versus the $3.806 billion they remitted in 2010.

But, land-based overseas Filipinos still outnumber the sea-based, for a ratio of seven to three.

Dimayuga explained that the volatile debt and economic conditions in Europe and the economic stress in the US, is still being offset by the strong growth in the Middle East and the rest of Asia.

Based on data released by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), job orders for professional and technical, service and production workers increased 24.6 percent to 200,010 in the first three months of 2012.

These are mainly intended for employment opportunities in Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, Taiwan, Kuwait, Singapore and Hong Kong, among others.

The lifting of the ban imposed by the national government on deployment to Nigeria, Libya and South Sudan, following improved security conditions in these countries, could provide additional employment prospects abroad for Filipino manpower.

Overall, the top 10 source countries of cash remittances from OFs are the U.S., Canada, Saudi Arabia, Japan, the U.K., Singapore, United Arab Emirates, Italy, Germany and Hong Kong, with these countries accounting for 86.3 percent of the total fund transfers reported by banks and often referred to as the formal sector.

Remittances from overseas Filipinos (OF) coursed through banks for 2011 expanded 7.2 percent to $20.1 billion compared to the 2010 remittance numbers of $18.76 billion.

The remittances of land-based workers accounted for about three-fourths or 78.4 percent of total remittances. For the month of December 2011, remittances grew 6.2 percent, registering the highest monthly level at $1.8 billion.