Saturday, May 19, 2012
Gulf News
Dubai The UAE could be one of two trial markets as the UK-headquartered payment services company Xpress Money makes a move into the individual to business (or business to individual as the case may be) transaction space. Its home market could be the other test market with the trials expected to start post-summer.
“There are very few payments facilitators who are already offering such a service capability and those who are got into it quite recently,” said Sudhesh Giriyan, who heads the regional operations at Xpress Money. “By getting in ourselves at the earliest we expect to narrow any advantage the others may have.
“As of now, we are trying to feel the market out by talking to institutional clients.”
Sources at local remittance houses reckon this is the way forward for the industry. Having institutional clients readily translates into substantial funds flowing through the remittance pipeline and that can only be a good thing for all industry players.
Xpress Money — which came into being in 1999 — only services individual to individual payments, with the UAE — where it has 350 locations operated by various exchange houses — and the GCC being one of its top transactional markets globally. Last year it entered the US and more recently Australia. The plans are to extend coverage to Latin America.
Widely rated
That is why the company wants to get into payment settlements involving individual to business and vice-versa. This category is widely rated within the industry as the next big thing.
Such services could be utilised to make an airline booking, whereby a customer can do the needful at a physical location where the Xpress Money service is available, or for a business to send salary contributions to outstation employees.
“We are formulating the systems and will also require having in place strict compliance practices,” said Giriyan. “Also, future corporate clients would need to be assured that we can provide optimum coverage through physical locations and that’s being addressed. We will also need to maintain bank accounts.
“It’s different to the typical compliance requirements for individual to individual and quite exhaustive.”
Not that remittance volumes involving individuals are showing any signs of slacking off. The estimated volumes last year through the GCC corridor were estimated at $76 billion (Dh278.9 billion). Saudi Arabia alone would account for more than $25 billion, enough to place it among the Top Three worldwide.
“But it’s still the US that is the biggest remittance market by far and the recession does not seem to have had any impact,” said Giriyan. “Last year it was estimated at $51.6 billion and it’s not difficult to see why — the whole of Latin America depends on individual remittances coming out of the US and so are many markets in Asia.
“China, India and Mexico remain the biggest recipients of remittance transactions, which goes to show that customer to customer volumes are not saturated. But customer to business opens up a whole new stream of opportunities.”
By Manoj Nair?Associate Editor
© Gulf News 2012. All rights reserved.
Aquino has nothing to fear from anti-money laundering law, says spokeswoman - Global Nation
Philippine Daily Inquirer
President Benigno Aquino III. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines – President Benigno Aquino III has nothing to hide and has nothing to fear from the country’s Anti-Money Laundering Act even when he’s no longer the Chief Executive.
Reacting to Senator Joker Arroyo’s comments that the anti-money laundering law may be used by a vindictive administration against officials of a past regime, Abigail Valte, one of the President’s spokespersons, said Mr Aquino “has no apprehension regarding such things.”
“The President has always been willing to answer any issue that has been thrown at him,” Valte said on radio. “The President has always been very upfront with what he has and he‘s always been very willing to answer questions on it.”
Valte said that even before President Aquino’s statement of assets, liabilities and net worth for 2011 was released, he already indicated the increase in his net worth because of his inheritance of the entire Times Street residence from his late parents.
Arroyo has been quoted as saying that he and Senator Edgardo Angara warned then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo about the dangers of an anti-money laundering law.
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Tags: anti-money laundering law , Benigno Aquino III , Government , Politics , SALN
India's forex reserve dropped by $1.37-billion - Newstrack India
Amid continuously depreciating Indian currency 'Rupee' as international currency 'Dollar', India's foreign exchange reserve (forex) dropped by US $1.37-billion, official data reflects it.
India's forex reserve that was in an adequate amount earlier before beginning the devaluation of Rupee had sharply slipped in two consecutive weeks by US$ 2.18-billion to US $291.80-billion, recorded on week ended May 11.
Foreign currency assets, the biggest component of the forex reserves kitty, fell by $1.33 billion to $257.85 billion during the week under review, according to the Reserve Bank of India's weekly statistical supplement.
The RBI did not provide any reasons for the change in foreign currency assets.
It said the assets expressed in US dollar terms included the effect of appreciation or depreciation of non-US currencies such as the pound sterling, euro and yen held in reserve.
However, the RBI is understood to have sold dollars from the reserves to curb the slide in the value of rupee.
The Indian rupee slumped to a new intra-day low of 54.91 against a dollar Friday. This was the third consecutive record low of rupee in the last three days. The rupee had hit a low of 54.60 against a dollar Thursday, surpassing previous day's record of 54.52.
The rupee also hit a new closing low of 54.49 against a dollar Wednesday and ended the week at 54.42.
The value of special drawing rights (SDRs) declined by $25.6 million to $4.43 billion, and India's reserves with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) fell by $16.7 million to $2.88 billion.
The value of gold reserves remained unchanged at $26.61 billion.
--With IANS Inputs--
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